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Health & Fitness

'Swabs for Snooks' event organized by Solimine family registers donors, could save lives

In late December, Joe Solimine Sr., former Pelham town supervisor, was diagnosed with leukemia. He needs a bone-marrow doner and decided to make his own fight into an effort to help others

PELHAM COUNTRY CLUB — In late December, Joe Solimine Sr., former Pelham town supervisor, was diagnosed with leukemia. He needs a bone-marrow doner and decided to make his own fight into an effort to help others who have the disease.

The whole Solimine family held this day to register bone-marrow donors. It was called Swabs for Snooks beause “Snooks” is what Mr. Solimine’s grandchildren call him.

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This is how it worked last Saturday. There was a whole team of volunteers, and each volunteer was assigned to a table with other volunteers. There were different tables: the information table, the registration table, the swab table and the check-out table.

Romina Levy, who worked at the registration table, said, “In the morning, it was slow, but also in the morning the Fordham baseball team visited. In the afternoon, it was beautiful. Snooks is also doing it for other people. That is my favorite part.”

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At the check-out table, Erin Marra said, “I think it is going great. Amazing community effort. The possibility is that someone could be a match, and my favorite part is getting to see so many friends and neighbors.”

Jen Solimine, who headed up the effort, said, “It is going amazingly well. The swabbing is the coolest for sure and fun to see. My favorite part of the whole thing is getting people registered because that really saves a life.”

Money was also raised for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. News 12 came and did a story on the event.

This story also appears on the Colonial Times website.

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