NHL Officials Tim Peel, Tony Sericolo, Eric Furlatt, and Andy McElman welcomed a very special young man to the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa on December 9th. Pat Pedraja is an incredible eleven-year-old who has leukemia and a dream. He plans to raise money for people who need bone marrow transplants.

Sericolo, Furlatt, and Peel met Patrick during a visit to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital of Tampa the day before. They learned that Pat started a Driving for Donors campaign to raise awareness and secure potential donors for the National Marrow Donor Registry.

On May 15, 2007, Pat and his family will board a "Donormobile" and travel for 2 months hitting 20 major cities along the way. All in an effort to add 2,007 new bone marrow donors in 2007.

The inspiration for Pat's Driving for Donors campaign came from a young woman named Greek Gray who lost her battle with leukemia earlier in 2006. Greek's story touched Pat's heart and motivated him to do something to help others who struggle to find a matching bone marrow donor.

According to Pedraja, 70% of those in need of a bone marrow transplant will ultimately have to rely on the National Marrow Donor Program Registry, because they will likely not find a match within their own families. As daunting as this is, it gets worse - it actually costs people to become a marrow donor. According to the Bone Marrow Foundation, the cost for HLA tissue typing ranges from $45 to $96. This is an obvious limitation in securing bone marrow donations.

"Pat really got my attention", said Furlatt when asked about a child who stood out at the hospital event. "The staff asked that we make our visit with him short because he had just received treatment and was not feeling well. But when we showed up, he smiled and could not stop talking about hockey and our job as officials. Even his mom was really surprised by his reaction. I guess we helped brighten the day a bit."

After losing most of his hair to chemotherapy, Pedraja asked his parents for permission to shave his head and sell advertising space to raise money to recruit and fund bone marrow donors. Pedraja posted an auction on eBay selling ad space on his head for a starting bid of $5,000. All Road Communications, located in San Diego CA, bought his first Ebay auction and another auction is currently underway. See link at bottom for his Ebay Auction.

Pat's mother Claudine shared the following in an e-mail shortly after the game:

"Thank you so very much for the opportunity with the NHL officials this weekend! We all had such a fantastic time. The officials were the kindest, most generous and friendly people that we have EVER met! They really went beyond what was required of them to make the night special to the boys! Please let them know how much the night meant to all of us and how great we think they are!"

A special thanks to Ron Pierce of the Tampa Bay Lightning and everyone in the Lightning's Community Relations group for your assistance with the event.

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Related Links

NHL Officials: http://www.nhlofficials.com/

Pat Pedraja's Driving for Donors Website: http://www.drivingfordonors.com/

Pedraja's Ebay Auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170062508410