On April 19, Falcon School District 49ís Falcon Virtual Academy hosted a second bone marrow donor drive in an effort to find a match for Aden Knar, a student at FVA. Adenís fellow students organized the event.Aden, now a third-grade student, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 4. After treatment, he went into remission in 2008; however, in November 2013, Adenís leukemia returned. The doctors said it was isolated in his bone marrow.FVA students held a bone marrow donor drive in January but were not able to find a donor match at that time. ìWe had about 250 participants at the last drive and found two donors for other people in need of bone marrow transplants, just not one for Aden,î said Jodi Fletcher, FVA assistant principal.The April drive attracted attention when Memorial Hospitalís Flight for Life helicopter showed up to support the cause and raffle a helicopter ride. Members of the Colorado Springs Fire Department were present as well to help with the helicopter landing.FVAís student council had a bake sale (donations only) at the event, with all proceeds going to help buy Aden a new recliner and assist the family with other financial needs, Fletcher said.Dacia Guisto, Colorado Springs resident who came to the event, said, ìIím here to help the little boy and make sure he lives the life every child deserves to live.îTy Hadley, another Colorado Springs resident, said he participated in the 2011 Lavaman Triathlon on the big island of Hawaii to help support the Knar family, and he wanted to participate in this effort as well.ìIím just really excited to see this type of community involvement,î Fletcher said.D 49 communications director, Matt Meister, sent an email with statistics on how many people participated in the drive. Meister said 744 people registered Saturday morning, but 350 werenít able to be swabbed onsite because they ran out of kits. However, those who didnít get swabbed were provided instructions on signing up online and will also have packets sent to their home so they can join the national registry.The samples tested at the event will take six to eight weeks to process, Meister said.He said the bake sale raised more than $730.Meister wrote that Aden was at the event for a couple of hours and was ìamazed by all of the people in attendance.î
