By Renee Larr
On June 15 the Indiana Blood Center and the Tyler Genneken Foundation will host the 4th annual Tyler Genneken Be the Match Bounce Bash and Dodgeball Tournament. The event will take place at Skyzone in Fishers at 5 p.m.
Tyler Genneken was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2006 and required a bone marrow transplant. Although there was no donor match for Genneken his dream was to get 10,000 people signed up for the BTM bone marrow donor registry.
Proceeds from the event go toward getting people signed up for the registry.
“This is the 4th annual event that we’ve had to raise money to sign people up for the registry. For every person that signs up it costs $100 to get them on the registry,” said Liza Angelicchio, Indiana Blood Center intern and cancer survivor.
Angelicchio was diagnosed in December of 2012 with the same cancer as Tyler Genneken. She found a non-familial match through BTM.
“I was diagnosed before I finished college so I needed one class and an internship to finish college. Since I needed a bone marrow transplant I figured Be the Match would be an awesome experience,” said Angelicchio.
According to BTM, more than 68,000 people have received transplants through their fundraising efforts. 70 percent of patients do not have a bone marrow match within their family which is why the registry is so important.
The event is a dodgeball tournament and bounce-a-thon. Each dodgeball team has a minimum of eight players. The cost to register a team is $600. Participants must be at least 15 years old. Each bounce-a-thon team is a minimum of four players. The cost to register a team is $30 with no age minimum.
Participants can register in advance through the Be the Match Foundation or they can register when they arrive at the event.
