Coach’s Friends Set Up Marrow Registry Drive
By Bob Susnjara Daily Herald Staff Writer
Steve Pappas’ legion of friends are holding a bone-marrow registry drive at several sites next weekend in an effort to help others while keeping his memory alive.
Pappas, 54, of Libertyville, was a beloved and successful boys basketball coach at Deerfield and Gordon Tech high schools who died last June after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Bone-marrow donor drives organized by his supporters were held shortly before Pappas succumbed to the blood- and immune-system- related cancer he fought for two years. He needed a marrow transplant.
Although they no longer can help Pappas, his pals will launch a drive at sites across the suburbs and city seeking potential bone- marrow donors from May 11 through 13.
“This one is in memory of Steve and to get as many people listed to save lives,” said Mount Prospect resident Martha Tzioumis, who knew Pappas since her childhood at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago.
The drive will be by the National Bone Marrow Donor Program, said Dr. John Venetos, chairman of the medicine department at Chicago’s Swedish Covenant Hospital.
Potential donors must be 18 to 60 years old, meet certain health guidelines and sign a consent form to have their tissue type listed on a registry, according to the marrow program.
A small blood sample or swab of cheek cells is collected and tested to determine the donor’s tissue type.
“If we get one donor and that donor has saved a life, we’ve been successful,” said Venetos, who’s part of the organizing group known as Team Pappas.
Doctors who search the registry will contact a volunteer if a marrow match for a transplant is found.
Pappas retired from basketball coaching in 2002, having compiled a 313-154 mark over 17 years at Deerfield and Gordon Tech.
He was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in April 2006.
bsusnjara@@dailyherald.com
GRAPHIC: Marrow registry sites
– 3 to 6 p.m. May 11: Deerfield High School, 1959 Waukegan Road.
– 1 to 5 p.m. May 11: Hewitt Associates, 100 Half Day Road in Lincolnshire.
– 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. May 11: Condell Medical Center, 700 Garfield Road in Libertyville.
– 6 to 9 p.m. May 11: Glenbrook North High School, 2300 Shermer Road in Northbrook.
– 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 11: Swedish Covenant Hospital, 5145 N. California Ave. in Chicago.
– 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. May 11: XSport Fitness, 1163 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Libertyville.
– 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 12: East Leyden High School, 3400 N. Rose St. in Franklin Park.
– 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 12: Warren Township High School upperclassmen campus, 34090 Almond Road in Gurnee.
– 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 12: Niles West High School, 5701 Oakton St. in Skokie.
– 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 13: Centre Club, 1405 Hunt Club Road in Gurnee.
– 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 13: XSport Fitness, 1163 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Libertyville.
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