The objective of this PSA is simple: save one life.
15-year-old Jack Chai had a bone marrow transplant, which ultimately saved his life. The donor was an anonymous man from Australia. Because of the life-threatening blood disorder that prompted the transplant, Jack also qualified for Make-A-Wish. By the time he qualified, he'd already gotten what he wanted--his health. After 9 months of isolation, he was finally able to be a kid again and hang out with his friends. He thought about asking to meet Kevin Durant from the Warriors, but opted instead to use his one true wish to give the gift of life to someone else.
He asked Make-A-Wish if he could be a bone marrow donation spokesperson, and record a PSA encouraging others to sign up for the registry at Be The Match. In his research, Jack learned that it takes an average of 430 registrations before one person goes on to donate. So Jack's goal is to have 430 new people sign up to be bone marrow donors so they too can be saved by an anonymous stranger. Jack's PSA also has an extra level of urgency; Jack is Asian American, so his chances of finding a match were smaller than most. His PSA puts special emphasis on people of color signing up since it takes longer for them to find a match.
Make-A-Wish immediately reached out to Be The Match to collaborate on this wish, since Jack wanted to direct people to register themselves through their website.
Be The Match was enthusiastic about using and sharing the PSA, but it would be up to Make-A-Wish to create the PSA itself. For that, the wish team reached out to some familiar supporters: the same production team that created the award-winning documentary, Batkid Begins, that tells the story of a different wish planned by the same two Make-A-Wish staff involved with Jack's PSA (which itself helped earn Make-A-Wish two previous Shortys, in 2014)! Many of the original crew from Batkid Begins immediately signed on to help, and offered to donate their services.
Jack wanted to script the PSA himself, and after talking to Dana Nachman, the producer, they decided to use footage of him at home, doing things he loves to do, as part of the PSA. In that way, it would tell the story of how Jack's life was saved--allowing him to go back to doing things he loved like playing with his dog and cooking with his friends--because someone signed up for the registry. Dana and her crew spent one afternoon at Jack's house and around his neighborhood capturing these scenes.
When the PSA was finished, we decided to have a live premiere at Jack's local theater, and invited 100 guests to join us. We took our first bone marrow donor signups at the event, which officially launched Jack's campaign to sign up 430 new donors. One of the event guests, a new Make-A-Wish volunteer, was so inspired to help that she immediately organized a bone marrow drive and secured a TV appearance for Jack on the local FOX affiliate.
Since then, Jack's PSA has given rise to several more bone marrow drives, numerous newspaper articles, TV appearances and speaking engagements. It's been shared on social media hundreds of times, liked and viewed thousands of times, and the momentum is still building. His PSA was even shown during a major league soccer game, to a crowd of 18,000. He has also signed up 94 new bone marrow donors--getting him 22% to his goal.
And winning this Shorty Award would help get Jack closer to his goal by distributing the PSA to an even wider audience! Please help us save one life and grant Jack's one true heartfelt wish.
Jack's wish has so far generated:
