Posted: Feb 17, 2014

Seahawks honored by the Rhode Island Blood Center

Head coach Kevin Gilmartin and juniors Dan Buonocore and Frank Musco as well as sophomore Hayden Stanton represented the Seahawks at the Rhode Island Blood Center Banquet and received the award on behalf of the team.

NEWPORT, R.I. – Last Thursday, the Salve Regina football team was recognized for its outstanding support of the "Be The Match" bone marrow donor program last spring.

The Seahawks held one of the most successful marrow donor drives Salve Regina's campus has seen in 2013 and was honored with the "Be the Match Bone Marrow Program Award" from the Rhode Island Blood Center last Thursday. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln D. Chafee presented the team with the governor's citation in honor of the award. The Seahawks also received special recognition from Congressman James R. Langevin in honor of receiving the "Be the Match" donor's award.

"Be the Match" is a national registry drive for bone marrow donors in the fight against leukemia, lymphoma and other blood disorders. The Seahawks led the charge on campus for the second-straight year in 2013, organizing and running a successful donor campaign.

At the banquet, Mike Gama, husband, father and police officer, was a bone marror recipent through the "Be the Match" foundation and met his match and donor, Catherine Prince.

"We got involved with "Be the Match" to help try and save someone's life from being cut short by cancer," remarked head football coach Kevin Gilmartin following the banquet on Thursday. "It is an amazing feeling to think that we were involved in saving someone's life, and then to see someone meet their match, meet the person that donated to save their life, there wasn't a dry eye in the house!"

Though the drive in 2013 was successful, the need for volunteers never diminishes. The Seahawks will once again lead a "Be the Match" drive on campus this spring. "Trying to find a bone marrow match is like trying to find the correct rock in the ocean," commented coach Gilmartin. "But the more rocks we have out there, the better chance we have of finding someone's match."

The Seahawks will host the Third Annual drive this spring on Wednesday, April 9 from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Rodgers Recreation Center.

For more information on the "Be the Match" program, please click here.