Sam Read
SCTV 3
According to marrow.org, “Every year, thousands of people of all ages are diagnosed with blood cancers like leukemia or lymphoma, sickle cell anemia or other life-threatening diseases. Many of them will die unless they get a bone marrow or cord blood transplant from a matching donor.”
And that is exactly what the Springfield College football team is trying to prevent.
The team has generously taken on the Be the Match fundraiser, and brought it to campus in the spring of 2012. This spring, Phil Baier received information that he, in fact, was a match, and donated his bone marrow to a woman with leukemia. Now, moving forward with their efforts, the Springfield College football players needed to promote this event, on campus and as publicly as possible.
That is where Bryan MacDonald came in.
The 6-foot-200-pound halfback decided to use his talents to help spread the word. When the director of the Be the Match Campaign asked the team how to promote the fundraiser, he decided to put his musical talents to work.
“I told her that I was a rapper, and she kind of laughed it off,” said MacDonald. “Then I went back to my room, got a beat and worked on it. It came out pretty good, so I sent it to her and she loved it.”
She loved it enough to take even more interest in the song, partnering MacDonald’s rapping skills with vocalist Ashleigh Munn’s signing on the chorus. The song has been produced and finalized, and will be the new theme song for the website marrow.org.
The video will be shot on the Springfield College campus this Sunday, April 21 at 12 p.m. All students are welcome to participate in the music video. It is expected to air on news stations in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
“I want everybody to come out and support the Be the Match Campaign, as well as this video,” said MacDonald. “You can have fun doing it and even save a life. What is better?”
Check out the song in the video below