Thursday, September 15, 2005

Michael's sister, Emily Brecker Greenberg writes:

My beloved brother, 11-time Grammy Award winning jazz saxophonist MICHAEL BRECKER, has recently been diagnosed with Myelo-Dysplastic Syndrome (MDS), a Pre-Leukemic Bone Marrow Disorder.  A Stem Cell Transplant could save his life.  The initial search for a donor that included me, our older brother Randy, and Michael’s two children did not result in a match.  Michael’s doctors have told us that the best way of finding a match for him is to increase the Donor Registry numbers with people of similar genetic backgrounds – in this case, people of Eastern European Jewish descent. By being tested, you will be eligible to help Michael and others in his situation.

To increase Michael's chances, we are having a

The testing here requires a swabbing from the inside of your cheeks with 4 sterile q-tips.  Your tissues typing information will be posted on the National Registry where it will also be available to others in need of a stem cell transplant. You are never legally obligated to be a donor and you can remove your name from the registry at any time.  However, a decision not to donate can be life threatening to a patient and among the most disheartening news a family can ever receive.  Therefore, please carefully consider your decision to be a donor and take appropriate action. There have been tremendous advances in stem cell/bone marrow transplants.  The process may be no more invasive than giving blood.  Stem cells can now be harvested directly from the donor's blood.  In many cases, the blood is removed from one arm and filtered through a cell-separating machine that collects the stem cells.  The donor’s blood is then returned through the other arm.  In other cases, stem cells may have to be harvested directly from your bone marrow.  All the necessary precautions are taken to ensure the safety and well being of the donor. The inconvenience and risk involved is minimal compared to the amazing reward of saving someone’s life!

We hope that you'll join our effort on that Sunday, October 30th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on other occasions

If you are unable to attend the donor drive, you can contact the Gift of Life Foundation and order a swab kit for $18.00 by going online at www.giftoflife.org.  This organization is providing us with swab kits for free at our donor drive. You may also wish to consider helping with a Tax-deductible Donation made payable to: Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation7700 Congress Ave., Suite 2201, Boca Raton, FL 33487 They (and WE) will appreciate your support! We will also be collecting contributions on the day of the drive.  If you need further information about the bone marrow/stem cell donation process, check these two websites: www.giftoflife.org  or www.marrow.org

One final request:  could you please send a copy of this email to the people in your address book?  If everyone who receives this email can motivate friends to join the effort by forwarding this letter, then we will have rapidly expanded the pool of potential donors.   Thank you so very much for your help.  We are extremely grateful.

With Love,  Emily Brecker Greenberg and Howard Greenberg

As of Tuesday, September 13, 2005     
will have Test Booths set up at JEWZAPALOOZA  It's a Free $$, All Day Concerts Event, on Sunday, September 25, 2005,  11AM-9 PM, at 72nd Street and Riverside Park on West Side in Manhattan.

I just heard from Gift of  Life and they are going to have their Test Booths RAIN OR SHINE! PLEASE NOTE that VOLUNTEERS will be needed to assist at Test Booths!

For more information scroll down to As of Thursday, September 8, 2005 or click HERE...

Monday, September 12, 2005

Susan Brecker was interviewed on JM in the AM by Nachum Segal http://www.nachumradio.com/ Live on the Air  at his studio, today. You can hear this entire show in  Real Audio Format, 24/7 worldwide by cliking on this link

Susan's segment starts at 1 hour:29 minute mark, and it is approximately 18 minutes long

Dear Nachum,

Thank you so MUCH for having Susan Brecker on your show!!! I know that I was a MAJOR PAIN IN THE NECK, driving your NUTS about this topic, but... Imagine if this interview does inspire someone to get tested, and, as a resutl does safe someone's life?!?! That would be amazing!!! Actually, I don't think it's far fetched to say that it can SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE, probably in your and mine LIFETIME... As a sax player, of course:), I hope that Michael Brecker will be among the lucky ones!!! 

It's AMAZING that as of now, Monday, September 12, 2005 at 11:03 AM - you already have it available, ala TiVo for everyone's 24/7 worldwide time shifting pleasure:)

I hope that this interview will become one of the most listened Archives of your shows!!!

Most important is the fact that you helped to get the word out on this life & death topic! And so, i want the whole world to know how grateful Iam to you, Nachum Segal for helping Brecker family and so many others who are waitign for this kind of help, or some day might need it!

I hope that you'll remember to announce a few times this JEWZAPALOOZA  Free $$, All Day Concerts Event, on Sunday, September 25, 2005,  11AM-9 PM, at 72nd Street and Riverside Park on West Side in Manhattan. where people will be able to GET TESTED FOR FREE!!!

May you, your family, and all of us NEVER the kind of help that Michael Brecker needs RIGHT NOW, and ASAP!!!  

Your friend, Arkady

Thursday, September 8, 2005     
will have Test Booths set up at JEWZAPALOOZA  It's a Free $$, All Day Concerts Event, on Sunday, September 25, 2005,  11AM-9 PM, at 72nd Street and Riverside Park on West Side in Manhattan.

If you are not sure that you can attend this event,
or want to DO THE RIGHT THING -- SMART AND EASY
Please order a Test Kit sent to your home for $18 NOW!!!

Please, stop by Gift of Life’s table at Jewzapalooza to be tested and learn more about how you can help in our mission to save lives.

It will only take one person to save Michael’s life.  Could it be you?  For more information, call 800-9MARROW, or visit our website, www.giftoflife.org  Please forward this information to everyone you know, and particularly to your Jewish friends!!! Thank you!!!

Gift of Life is going to need volunteers: a minimum of 15 people staffing will be needed at all times.  Since it's a long day, it is assumed that people will want to volunteer in shifts. Gift of Life would need to know who is coming, and at what times, to make sure they are covered for the whole event.

If you are interested in being a volunteer at this event, please email me your Contact info: Name and Phone number to 4michaelbreckerandyou@gmail.com and it will be forwarded to Gift Of Life, who will contact you. Please use this Subject Line: Volunteer - 9/25/05 - Jazzapalooza so that your email is not overlooked. Your Privacy will be respected. Thanks a lot!!!

The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, the only Jewish Bone Marrow Registry in North America, will be testing volunteers at JEWZAPALOOZA on September 25, 2005 to join its Registry of Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Donors.  Gift of Life is internationally recognized for facilitating Bone Marrow, Blood Stem Cell and Umbilical Cord Blood Transplants for over 1,000 patients around the world.  Through targeted recruitment in Jewish communities, Gift of Life has greatly improved the chances that Jewish patients will find genetically matched donors.  

Monday, September 5, 2005

Susan Brecker will be interviewed on JM in the AM by Nachum Segal http://www.nachumradio.com/ Live on the Air  at his studio on Monday, September 12 at 7:30 AM. 

This show broadcasts at 91.1 FM in the New York City area, at 90.1 FM in the Hudson Valley, and live on the web in Realaudio, or in Windows Media, as well as two flavors of MP3 All programs are archived in RealAudio, so that you can listen to them later, for free on a computer. See this page http://www.jmintheam.org/ for shows schedule and archives...

Sunday, September 4, 2005, 4:04 AM....

I know that I've brought this up before, but maybe it got overlooked --

How about BLOOD DRIVES IN MUSIC SCHOOLS?!:

Manhattans School of Music
Julliard (NYC)
Berkley College of Music
Miami University 
North Texas State
Indiana
Eastman
Curtis School Of Music in Philadelphia, PA
North Western (Chicago)
New School (NYC)
Etc. etc. etc.

These are just some music schools with Jazz Departments in there... There MUST be Jewish kids attending those schools!!!

At this point, would Michael refuse Blood from a classical violinist?:):):)! I.e. It doesn't have to be limited to Jazz Schools, or even MUSIC SCHOOLS?!...

BTW, there is a good chance that some of the classical students are not only Jewish, but former Soviet Jews or their kids...

This CONCEPT is just ANOTHER UNTURNED STONE...

All it'll take would be a few phone calls/emails/letters from a some BIG NAMES in JAZZ, prominent Faculty Members of those or other schools calling the DEANS of those schools ...

I just thought of another place - Yeshiva University, on 181 and Amsterdam in Manhattan... I should look into that school with the help of a couple of friends that are reading this... (Thanks Jake, Asher)

Before yall dismiss this, at least look into it... 

Arkady 

P.S. And of course, there blood drives in Synogogues, where everyone is  HLA Type Tissue Tested...

   A Letter from a Jewish Fan: What we can do and Why...

------------------------------------
• ARKADY'S REPLY BELOW •

The time for beating around the bush is OVER, we must ACT NOW, or it's NEVER!!!

ARKADY'S MISSION STATEMENT (sharper draft version)

MISSION STATEMENT 2 (as suggested by Michael Brecker's manager)

As a member of the Jewish Community, I profoundly beg you to ACT AS A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY.  Get tested and registered as a Blood Cell Donor. Too many in our community die while waiting for a donor. Only if we get tested can lives be saved....INCLUDING PERHAPS OUR OWN. Get tested AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to help Jewish superstar Michael Brecker and FOR OUR COMMUNITY....so that YOUR FRIENDS and YOUR LOVED ONES will have a donor match. Let's save all of our personal superstars: those that each of us love and want to protect.  GET TESTED! IT'S INSURANCE FOR US ALL.

P.S. Although there is going to be a Free On-Site Testing at JEWZAPALOOZA on September 25th 2005, and in Philadephia Area on Sunday, October 30, 2005, please understand that Laboratories are SLOW, i.e. it takes 4-5 weeks or longer for the tests results to be entered into Bone Marrow Registry!!! And that 4 weeks clock begins from the moment your cotton swab or a blood sample is received by the laboratory. Add to that the time from the moment you order your Test Kit and when it arrives to your home, and is returned back to the laboratory...

Take your pick, but start picking up the phone and making calls NOW, or it's NEVER!!!

* I am not a professional Fundraiser, Promoter, FEMA..
* There is no time for Monday Night quarterback second-guessing...
* If you have suggestions, please let me know at
4michaelbreckerandyou@gmail.com

IF YOU ARE READY TO HELP,  ORDER A TEST KIT = $18 =
SENT TO YOUR HOME = ONLINE DONOR REGISTRATION
http://www.giftoflife.org/article.asp?ID=10

For More Donor Info, go to Gift of Life Home Page
http://www.giftoflife.org/index.asp 

Click on •Donors• in the left column
a drop down menu will have links like these:

Educational Information
Steps to Donation

If you are able to organize a Blood Drive, call
Gift of Life, 1-800-962-7769

As many of people who know me would testify, I've been deeply emotionally involved with this topic helping Michael SURVIVE this NIGHTMARE!!!… Some have even suggested that I’d write a novel on this topic.

Well, I could definitely do that, and might, but, as of now, I want to focus on helping Michael every way I can…

In addition to countless emails to every one I know, I’ve ended up setting up this page as a Gateway to this Topic of SAVING MICHAEL BRECKER’S LIFE!!!

EMAIL is a wonderful concept, even with SPAM being such a huge problem. Forwarding a link to this page


or, better yet, making it a part of your  email signature, could help safe Michael’s life, and obviously many other patients, like Michael, who are not as famous as Michael… I’ll resist the temptation of going on a tangent about why Michael, fame, why not others, other causes etc… Maybe I'll address that in my memoirs:)

I respect your common sense, and I presume that many folks have already “worked through” those emotional issues for themselves… Let’s get back to this sub-topic -- EMAIL…

We all communicate differently, and that includes EMAIL… I am not going to tell anyone how to use their email, or live their lives… I can only tell you how I do it, and I hope you’d consider some of my ideas…

Before I say anything about EMAIL, I can’t stress strong enough one SIMPLE CONCEPT -- BCC – Blind Carbon Copy, which helps a lot, as far as protecting your email PRIVACY!!! See this web page


Here are some other ideas to consider about the use of email, particularly in this context…

As part of my Save Michael Email Blitz, I’ve been asking everybody to forward my emails to everyone on their email lists. Then I’ve detected a trend… 

Whenever I’d talk to someone about Forwarding Emails, I began hearing the same theme –  "Hey we probably know all the same people, so I figured that they have already got a copy of your email… "

Sounds familiar? Logical?

Well, here is what I, Arkady, think about that…

Yes, in many cases there will be OVERLAPS – same people on many people’s list, but… NOBODY can say with a 100% certainty that all our email lists have all the same people on them, even some people share lots of mutual friends etc.…

Can we really afford such assumption, and, as a result, leave out anyone’s email address?

Of course, if one has a little spare time, and has higher than basic email skills, it’s possible to play “Categories and Email Rules Game” and EXCLUDE  a group of Contacts-Email Addresses in order to minimize the OVERLAPS, but what’s so HORRIBLE about a few people getting the same message several times, and having to use a Delete Key?!

All of us, in addition to our SPAM FILETERS, Email Rules etc, use the DELETE KEY to delete SPAM

So… if one’s email skills are less than stellar, is it so hard to hit the Delete key?

VERY SADLY, I’ve actually received a few REMOVE ME FROM YOUR LIST emails… Fortunately, out of over 2,000 or so email addresses on my list, most of those few REMOVE ME emails were from people that I hardly knew, but, even more SADLY, there were a few REMOVE ME emails that came from fellow musicians!!!

Hard to believe? Yes, but true… These REMOVE ME EMAILS fell into the following categories

#1 - I already get too many of these…

#2 - How about other causes, and folks who are less famous than Michael?

#3 - Wish we all were as passionate about other causes, as you, Arkady, are about this one…

Regarding #1,

How much more annoying is this topic when compared to Unwanted Viagra Ads and other SPAM, or heated political debates, Petitions etc during Presidential Elections?!

Regarding #2 & 3, 

Of course those are good legitimate questions, but why does it have to be EITHER or OR? Do those REMOVE ME folks meant that I shouldn't be this passionate about trying to Save Michael Brecker's life because he is famous, not some poor nameless person in Africa?

#2 & 3 also "smell" like an excuse TO DO NOTHING!!!

Are the REMOVE ME folks saying that it's OK to forward Susan Brecker's email once, and go back to our lives ASSUMING that everyone instantly ran out and got tested after reading up all the FAQ Pages on this topic?

I respectfully disagree..., and for good reasons...

After forwarding Susan Brecker's email, and receiving many copies of it, I instinctively knew that it wouldn't be enough...

Also, my logic was -- if I forwarded that Susan Brecker's email to close to 2,000 people and received it maybe form 10-20 people, that most likely means that the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of folks didn't forward that email to too many people, for whatever reasons...

After several waves of my Michael Brecker related emails, with lots of helpful information and links, to this day, September 15/2005, which is 7 weeks after I first got Susan Brecker's email, I have PERSONALLY ran into fellow MUSICIANS at the gigs who I know received my emails on this topic for over 7 weeks now, and who said something like -- "Yep, man, you are right, I think I should go and get tested"...

Those were not some people who are taking their baby steps learning English language, like I once did when I came to NYC, USA at 17 years old, not speaking English... -- those were adults, and I'll bite my tongue now... !!!

So, I'll repeat it again and again, some people need to be told more than once, by more than one person, and continuously, before they even consider making an effort to go get tested... 

Then, when I when I learned about $18 Test Kits from Gift of Life available online, sent to your home, I did another 1 or 2 email cycles on this topic, so that the folks who thought that $40 was too much would now have a less expensive, and a simpler option than paying $40 and scheduling a Test...

That's why I say -- LET'S GET LOUD, start FORWARDING all Mike Brecker related emails, until you see a flood of emails on this topic coming back to you -- THAT'S HOW ONE CAN SURELY TELL, instead of assuming, that PEOPLE CARE....

But, better yet, it's best sometime to follow up with a phone call...

TELEPHONE -- Not your Jerry Lewis' Telethon

I've made countless calls on this topic, getting into people's faces about it, if I had to... If I hadn't, Susan Brecker would have not ended up being interviewed on Nachum Segal's show, appealing and educating Nachum's vast Jewish Listeners, and there would have not been Free On Site Testing at JEWZAPALOOZA -  a Free $$, All Day Concerts Event, on Sunday, September 25, 2005,  11AM-9 PM, at 72nd Street and Riverside Park on West Side in Manhattan - RAIN or SHINE!!!

Sometimes it felt really uncomfortable, but it had to be done..

FLYERS… Grassroots anyone?

One day, a fellow musician asked me to help him figure out his email, so that he could forward my email on this topic. In frustration he said: "I wish there was a flyer that I could put up in a bunch of places..." So I made this flyer...

Maybe I am being naive about the flyers these days, and this whole topic in general, but my heart tells me differently... So, PLEASE

TELL EVERYBODY you meet in your daily lives. You never know who knows whom, and where that might lead...

-- Arkady

---

These are some articles on this topic that I am aware of...