Elliot Lapin is currently fighting a devastating battle for his life -- and he's only seven years old.
While other children his age are excited about the holidays and concerned with the trials and tribulations of grade school, Lapin is struggling to overcome a rare disease called Adrenoleukodystrophy, also known as ALD or Lorenzo's Oil Disease.
And Lapin is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, which would give him his greatest chance for survival.
But Penn Hillel is trying to help.
The organization started a bone marrow drive targeting the Jewish community on Monday to better Lapin's chances of finding the much needed match.
Currently, there are more than 3,000 people awaiting bone marrow transplants and the rate of donor-patient compatibility is low. The odds of a bone marrow match range from one in 100,000 to one in 1,000,000.
A patient's greatest chance of finding a compatible donor is within his own ethnic group -- in Lapin's case, a Jew of Eastern European descent.
Hillel Director Jeremy Brochin said that his organization's involvement in the drive was extremely important.
"There is this child in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, and we have a population here that has a potential match," he said. He then added that he was impressed by the turnout, saying, "We didn't anticipate these numbers, but that's a good thing."
Roughly 170 volunteers turned out for the event, although only 153 were qualified to donate the blood necessary for the screening.
Organizers did not expect such a high response and thus were not equipped to handle the mass of volunteers as quickly as they would have liked.
But the volunteers didn't seem to mind the extra wait.
"It's okay, that's how long it took," said Guy Margalith, a College and Wharton senior, who said the process took him about an hour and a half. "I'm here to help out and hopefully save a life. If you can make a difference, why not? It's definitely a worthy cause."
While bone marrow drives are typically sponsored by organizations such as the Red Cross, more and more families are opting to sponsor the drives on their own so they can be notified of the results directly.
The Lapin's paid thousands of dollars to sponsor this week's drive, as well as similar drives at other locations.
In nearby Ardmore, Pa., at a private school, a parallel drive was also held Monday to help find Lapin a marrow match.
When members of the Jewish community at Penn found out that the publicized Ardmore drive was going to take place, they wanted to help.
Originally, they planned to hire a bus to transport Penn volunteers to Ardmore, but then decided that running their own drive would prove more fruitful.
However, even organizers didn't expect it to be as productive as it was.
"We didn't even expect 50 people, but somehow it worked out," said College sophomore Yael Berdugo, one of the drive's organizers. "People just keep on coming. Hopefully there will be a match, if not for Elliot, than for someone else."
Students said the magnitude of the situation compelled them to act.
"I was just told to come down and help," said College freshman Scott Sokoloff. "To save a person's life, it's one of the greatest deeds a person can do."
