Signs

You Will Need:
• Graphic Design skills or a designer to help you create a layout with text and photos or graphic illustrations.
• To include information that will help to educate people. Key points I included on signs I made for Tami included:
- Only 70% of those in need find a match
- Only 30% of those who find matches receive them from family members
– 70% of donationas are given by PBSC

Sign Chices include dry mounting on foam board, posterboard, or framing. I chose to create framed signs for Tami because Ikea sells very inexpensive, lightweight, wooden frames with thin mylar plastic in place of glass.


Cost: If you have access to a high quality photo printer you can print your own paper sigsn. If you have funds to use you can design the signs yourself then take them toa printshop like Kinkos and have them printed for you on heavy paper or on vinyl like a banner. Dry mounting and framing will also add up. Make sure any frames you get are lightweight. You might be holdingo one up for 3 or 4 hours at a live drive.

Why have Signs?

• Hand held large signs are useful at live drives to capture the attention of people passing by.
• If you have an office you can hang a sign there to start converstaitons about the need for more people to become registered donors.
• If you have a storefront window you can post the sign in you'll reach even more people.

The night before a live drive to help Tami I put together a bunch of signs I had printed at Kinkos. I really wanted us to have signs to more easily catch the attention of people entering the museum so that they knew we were there for a purpose. Included on our large signs were Michelle Maykin from Project Michelle.com, Tami and Matthew from Team Matthew.org. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that Team Matthew even sent 7 volunteers to help us out at the drive.

On the back were two "cheat sheets" in plastic sleeves to help out our volunteers who had never volunteered at a drive before. On the left was information about Tami including her condition and hospitalization. On the right were answers to frequently asked questions about the donor program and registration process.

There was also a small pocket filled with Tami's business cards. They were offered to people who are already in the registry but wanted to help us spread the word by giving the cards to people they know and sending them to the website to order a test kit online. We also gave them to people who didn't have time to stop to register yesterday so that they could order an online kit for themselves.

Signs are great conversation starters




Use them indoors and outdoors

Here was my friend Maureen out on the street flagging down passing cars with her sign to let them know something was up. It hadn't occurred to me that we could have people outside so the next time we do a drive I'll create some large, bright arrow signs that simply say in bold letters "MARROW DRIVE TODAY →" that our volunteers can use on the street.