Please help us spread the word about Michelle and the need for Asian bone marrow donors.

www.projectmichelle.com

Register yourself as a bone marrow donor. You could possibly save Michelle’s life, or one of the thousands of people who need a donor.

Before you register, get educated. It’s not helpful when you register but then decide not to donate when the time comes. Be committed when you register.

WHAT: In-n-Out: The Drive to Increase Asian American Registered Bone Marrow Donors

WHEN: Saturday | June 14, 2008 | 10 am - 3 pm

WHERE: Chinese for Affirmative Action, Community Room
The Kuo Building
17 Walter U. Lum Place
San Francisco, CA 94108

COST: Free for all partial and full ethnic minorities (Asian and Pacific Islander, Native American, Hispanic/Chicano, and African American) and $25 registration fee for all non-minorities.

To RSVP and to show your support, please visit our Facebook Event and/or our Evite.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Christopher Lequang
christopher.lequang@gmail.com

PROJECT MICHELLE GAINS MOMENTUM NATIONWIDE: OVER 4,000 MINORITY BONE MARROW DONORS REGISTERED IN TWO WEEKS

Education Effort Critical To Eliminate Shortage of Minority Donors

San Francisco, CA, May 30, 2008 – Project Michelle, a nationwide grassroots initiative dedicated to increasing the deficient number of minority bone marrow donor registrants in the national registry, announced today the results of its first two weeks of donor registration drives. In 81 drives across 10 cities, Project Michelle volunteers have registered over 4,000 potential donors and received online requests for over 1,500 home registration kits - tremendous momentum toward achieving the initiative’s near-term goal of 15,000 new registrants in 5 weeks.

Project Michelle was formed in support of Michelle Maykin, a 26-year old acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient facing a life-threatening, time-sensitive search for a bone marrow donor match. Since the initiative’s launch just two weeks ago, Project Michelle has received an outpouring of public support and inspired volunteerism within Asian American communities throughout the country. Project Michelle teams have been established in the San Francisco-Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Boston, and Seattle.

Project Michelle has generated awareness and registration efforts in many corporations including KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Google, Kaiser Permanente, and Raytheon and has produced drives on numerous college campuses including Stanford, Harvard, The University of Pennsylvania, Columbia and UC Berkeley.

“The reception we’ve had from the communities who have heard Michelle’s story has been unbelievable, and the hard work put in by every volunteer has been an inspiration to Michelle and all of us in her family. Their efforts to date have paid off as we watch the number of new donor registrants climb daily, and we are enthusiastic about Project Michelle’s momentum.” says Hoang Mong Thu, mother of Michelle.

One of Project Michelle’s main goals is to bring attention to the dire shortage of minority bone marrow donors, an avoidable problem that could be eliminated by educating and reaching out to the over 10 million unregistered Asians in America. On any given day, there are over 6,000 patients who are in need of a transplant but do not have bone marrow donor matches. As a whole, only 3% of the U.S. population is registered as bone marrow donors. Myths of a painful donation procedure held over from an earlier era in medicine often deter potential donors from registering or cause them to back out when they are identified as a match and asked to donate. However, medical advances have made 70% of donations today non-invasive, using procedures similar to donating blood.

Joining the national donor registry is easy and painless. The process involves only a cotton swab sample of the inside of the cheeks in addition to the completion of a form. This can be done at local registration drives (www.projectmichelle.com/drives.html) or conveniently at home by requesting a free kit through AADP (www.aadp.org/pages/register.php). Donor registrations, in person or online, are free to all minorities.

It is encouraged that registered donors take the time to learn about the donation procedure to understand the entire process. Donor safety and well-being is a top priority of the NMDP. Additionally, a committee made up of medical directors helps ensure that safe and effective procedures are used throughout the process.

About Michelle
Born in Texas and raised in the Bay Area, Michelle has grown to become an amazing girlfriend, daughter, sister and friend to many. In 2000, Michelle graduated from College Park High School, where she served as ASB president, and then in 2004 from The University of California at Berkeley, where she joined the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity and met her boyfriend of six years, Van Le. Since graduating in 2004, Michelle has worked in advisory services at KPMG and has volunteered for organizations such as the Juvenile Detention Center in San Jose, OASES in Oakland, and Tzu Chi Foundation in San Francisco. In all her involvements, Michelle brings a contagious energy and spunk that people draw on for inspiration.

About Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
According to the American Cancer Society, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer that starts in cells that would normally turn into white blood cells. “Acute” means that the leukemia can progress quickly, and if not treated, could be fatal in a few months. AML starts in the bone marrow (the soft inner part of the bones, where new blood cells are made), but in most cases it quickly moves into the blood. It can sometimes spread to other parts of the body including the lymph nodes, liver, and central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

About Project Michelle
Project Michelle is a nationwide grassroots initiative created to help raise awareness of leukemia and educate people of the bone marrow donation process in an effort to grow the deficient number of Asian American registrants and the broader database as a whole. The goal is to enroll 15,000 donors into the national registry in hopes of finding acute myeloid leukemia patient Michelle Maykin a bone marrow match and eliminating the shortage of minority bone marrow donors.

For more information, please visit: www.projectmichelle.com.

ABC Supermarket
Sat, May 31, 10am – 4pm
6970 Bolsa Ave., Westminster, CA 92683

Cerritos Farmer’s Market, Cerritos Town Center
Sat, May 31, 8am – 12pm
Park Plaza Drive, Cerritos, CA 90703

For more drives, please visit: http://projectmichelle.com/upcoming-drives/

***
From A3M (Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches):

Michelle, a Chinese-Vietnamese American and Berkeley alum, urgently needs our help in giving her a new chance at life. She is undergoing chemotherapy at present but needs to find a match for her bone marrow transplant by June 21st.

Fortunately, you can help.

Three Things You Can Do

1. Please get registered.

Getting registered is quick and requires a simple cheek swab and paperwork (10 minutes of your time). If you are actually a match, the donation process is VERY similar to giving blood.

We have created an organization called “Project Michelle” (www.Projectmichelle.com) to increase the number of Asians registered in the bone marrow registry. Our goal is to enroll 15,000 Asians. Her match is most likely to come from a person of Asian descent, however, very few Asians are actually in the registry and this makes it very difficult for doctors to find them a match. This is why we need your help.

We are currently organizing drives nationwide, and you can register by visiting a local drive. Please check our website for information about drives in your area (www.marrow.org).

If you’re interested in registering, please contact Jino De Castro at 213.473.1672 or jdecsatro@Ltsc.org. You can schedule an appointment to register in person at our downtown office (244 S. San Pedro St. #503 Los Angeles, CA 90012) or we can send you a home kit.

2. Organize a drive.

Organize a drive in your community (workplace, church, community center, etc.).

At a minimum, please share this email message with at least 20 people, and ask them to do the same. Please point your friends to local drives, ask them to get registered, and organize a drive in their own community.

Please use the power of your address book to spread this message – today more than ever before, we can achieve broad scale and be part of a large online movement to save lives.

3. Learn more

To learn more, please visit (www.marrow.org). The site includes more details on how to organize your own drive, valuable information about leukemia, plus FAQs on registering.

Thank you for getting registered and joining this effort to help Michelle win her fight against leukemia – and for helping others who may face blood disorders in the future.

Best,

Michelle’s family and friends

Michelle Maykin, a good friend of a friend, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in February 2007. Right now, she’s down to the last 5 weeks to find a bone marrow match. What makes it tougher is that the match is more likely to happen with someone of Asian descent and sadly, there is a lack of Asian donors out there.

If you’d like to help, all it takes is a cotton swab in the mouth and a little bit of paperwork to get registered as a donor. If you’re in LA, you can go to the following location to register (please let them know you are registering for Michelle Maykin. They will expedite and process your registration against Michelle’s bone marrow type).

Asians For Miracle Marrow Matches
231 E. Third St. Suite G107
Los Angeles, CA 90013

They are open Weekdays, Monday through Friday, 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM and you can call (888) 236-4673 to schedule an appointment.

If you’re elsewhere and you’d like to help, you can find more info here.

A recent video blog from Michelle:

About Michelle Maykin: ProjectMichelle.com

Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches - Donor Resources: asianmarrow.org/donors

Thanks so much for your time. If you could pass this on to anyone who might be able to help… it’d be much appreciated.

So I watched OPTION 3 at the film fest last night and it was quite good for what it was. Director Richard Wong actually gave us a bit of a disclaimer prior to the screening, saying that this film would not do what films try to do. Rather, it would reflect the state of his mind during a time of depression following a bad ending to a relationship. Well, it was quite a journey trying to follow what was going on, but I think that’s exactly what it was all about as puzzle pieces here and there were presented to us and the main character, Ken. It’s kinda like you get into Ken’s head and start going crazy, too. Anyway, as serious and intense as the film got, it also got pretty silly at times… and dude, how could it NOT have a musical number? (COLMA?)

Anyway, the film caused me to remember a short film I had made in college… inspired by my experiences with relationships, etc.

So here it is… it’s nothing fancy, but it’ll give you a glimpse of what was in my head about 4 years ago…

I can’t believe it’s almost here! This Thursday is Opening Night!

Then, on Friday night, the short film I produced for Rocky Jo, MY FIRST CRUSH, will be making it’s debut in Program 2 - Seasons of Love.

Saturday night, come check out the music video program that I curated! I’m also throwing an afterparty / live music event, NO NEED FOR EAR PLUGS, at Libertine featuring performances by Scott Tang, Karin Anna Cheung, and Big Phony! If you’re on Facebook, here’s the invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11405059077

Yup…it’s gonna be a busy weekend for me.

***

Official Festival Website: http://festival.vconline.org

My friend saw this picture and thought it was me. But no, that wouldn’t be me signing posters for Forbidden Kingdom. Haha.

Speaking of which, Forbidden Kingdom opens today in the U.S. Jackie Chan + Jet Li? Looks like a lot of fun with some cool action shots. I’m looking forward to it.

http://forbiddenkingdommovie.com/

Finally! The music vid I produced for Tatum Jones last year is now available online.

“Ain’t No Sunshine.” Performed by Tatum Jones. Directed by Rocky Jo.