#Join4Joe Coming Up

For the second consecutive year, the St. Louis Cardinals, in conjunction with the St. Louis Baseball Writers and Be The Match, will host the #Join4Joe bone marrow donor drive at Busch Stadium on Saturday, September 9, to add individuals to the national registry and
increase the chances of finding a donor match for those awaiting a life-saving bone marrow transplant. The event was organized last season to honor the legacy of Joe Strauss, who covered the Cardinals for 14 years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and passed away in December 2015 at the age of 54 after a courageous battle fighting leukemia.

“The baseball writers are proud to partner with the St. Louis Cardinals to continue honoring Joe’s legacy by helping others battling Leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers find bone marrow donors,” said MLB.com’s Cardinals reporter Jenifer Langosch, who worked with Joe. “Last year’s drive added over 100 potential donors to the registry and we hope to see those numbers continue this year so that more lives can be saved.”

The St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to annually partner with the St. Louis baseball writers to sponsor the #Join4Joe drive in Joe’s name and have developed a formal intake process via cardinals.com/join4joe to sign up donors all year round. “To all of us, Joe was much more than a baseball writer, he was our friend,” said Ron Watermon, Vice President of Communications for the St. Louis Cardinals. “We can’t think of a more fitting tribute to Joe than collaborating with his colleagues in the media annually to save lives.”

This year, the drive will take place inside Busch Stadium outside the Family Pavilion in the Ford Plaza from 4:15-8:00 p.m. as the Cardinals host the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 6:15 p.m. game that evening. Volunteers will be educating fans about the mission of Be The Match and assisting those interested in joining the national registry complete the short process, which typically takes about 15 minutes.

photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI