OUR PHILANTHROPY

The Story

Lambda Phi Epsilon works with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) to save the lives of patients requiring bone marrow transplants. Additionally, the fraternity promotes awareness for leukemia and other blood disorders. Individuals who suffer from these types of illnesses depend on donors with similar ethnic backgrounds to find compatible bone marrow matches. Thus, the fraternity aims to register as many committed donors to the cause through local #BeTheMatch campaigns to increase the chances for patients to find a life-saving a donor.

In 1995, Evan Chen, a member of Theta Chapter at Stanford University, was diagnosed with leukemia. Their chapter, along with Evan’s friends, organized a joint effort to find a bone marrow donor. What resulted was the largest bone marrow typing drive in the history of the NMDP and Asian American Donor Program (AADP). In a matter of days, over two thousand people were typed into the bone marrow registry. A match was eventually found for Evan, but unfortunately by that time the disease had taken its toll on him and he passed away in 1996. In Evan’s memory, the flagship philanthropy for Lambda Phi Epsilon was established and the fraternity has been working with the organization from that point forward.