The BCSF 10th Anniversary “X GAMES” is an Epic Success

Spirits were high at the 2014 BCSF X GAMES (10 year anniversary) with over 600 participants ranging from babies to parents in their sixties competing, cheering on players, selling food and hand crafted art and reuniting with old friends.

With sports back-to- back and Saturday’s new events, this year’s amount of activities at the Blessed Culture and Sports Festival (BCSF) was unprecedented. This year featured the muddy runners of the Weekend Warrior Mudder’s Trail, and their attempt to get up the 12-foot wall. Family Day drew in 20 young families from, many of whom have not seen eachother in years. The general desire is to continue Family Day at BCSF and build off it to create similar gatherings for young families across North America throughout the year. Catch up with BCSF 2014 on Facebook and view videos and photos.

This year’s BCSF featured a Weekend Warrior Mudder’s trail that concluded with a and epic 12 foot high wall participants had to run up and climb.

This year’s fashion show featured the fashions of many Unificationist youth.

The CARPGAMES featured games parodied after Harry Potter such as Save Dobby, where participants had to find socks to free the elf and Quidditch. Each team was made up of multiple districts to instill the CARP practice of cooperation. The Prize included CARP paraphernalia.

Bone Marrow Drive is an Unexpected Success at BCSF

In addition to the usual sports competitions, evening programs, and local artist vendors, a new table advertising “Marrow for Morrow” was set up at the 2014 BCSF.

The table was organized as an effort to support Morrow Willis, a 28-year-old Unificationist from Texas, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), in which bone marrow makes too many lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. This form of cancer is rare, and develops in the body very quickly, but it also responds to treatment quite well. ALL has a high rate of return, and Morrow’s bone marrow lacks the ability to produce healthy blood cells to keep the cancer from returning. Mororw is currently back in the hospital, facing a second round of chemotherapy treatment after a relapse. 

Morrow requires a donation of healthy bone marrow in order to keep the cancer from returning, and since he is half-Japanese, half-Caucasian, a good match for a marrow transplant will most likely be mixed-race. Unfortunately, only four percent of people registered on the international marrow registry are mixed-race. 

“BCSF seemed like a perfect opportunity to set up a bone marrow drive,” said Yoshie Manaka, a volunteer. “Our church has so many mixed-race young people, and so many of us come together at Sports Fest. Many of us know and love Morrow, and those who don’t are still eager to help.” 

“We knew that there were a lot of potential donors at BCSF, but we never expected the overwhelming numbers of people who signed up,” said Soon-Jung Fong, the young Unificationist who initiated the drive at Sports Fest. “We would have celebrated even if 30 mixed-race people signed up, but we were pleasantly surprised. 95 people total signed up, and I estimate that about eighty of them are mixed-race.” 

Prior to his diagnosis, Morrow was attending Georgetown University, pursuing a Master’s degree in International Affairs. His career goals include working in the international public sector abroad in Asia. Morrow previously attended the University of Southern California where he was a Fulbright Scholar in 2011. We hope the efforts at BCSF, as well as other bone marrow drives being held across America, will yield a donor for Morrow. 

For more information about Marrow’s situation and how you can help, visit: Facebook.com/MarrowforMorrow. For information about marrow donation, visit: Bethematch.org or Aadp.org.