Edith,
I'm glad to hear that you are working on this worthy project.
We had a bone marrow registration drive as part of the
Los Angeles Hope, Steps & A Cure Walk in April 2011. We piggybacked off the publicity for the fundraising walk.
We didn't expect to get a large number of bone marrow registry signups because the walk attendees were mostly bone marrow failure disease patients and family members. They were likely to already know about the registry and to have already signed up if they were eligible.
To our surprise, many of the volunteers, especially those who came as a team from Kohl's Department Stores, registered that day. Few of them knew anything about bone marrow failure, but it was the perfect storm: volunteers who had come to help because they were community-minded, patients in need right in front of their eyes, and our pitch that they might save a life starting with only a cheek swab. We got a total of 39 new registrants for the bone marrow registry that day.