If there was ever a personality meant for talk radio it is Nestor Aparicio. No matter where he has worked in and around Baltimore, “Nasty” as he is sometimes known, has never been a shrinking violet, and is never ever without an opinion or something to say. Sometimes he has ticked people off, sometimes he has entertained but always he is in the conversation. These days in addition to all his radio work, Nestor has spent a great amount of time being around and helping and supporting his lovely wife Jenn, who was dealt a pretty severe blow last year. However she has battled back, and in Nestor fashion, he has found a way this summer to combine his love of sports and entertainment, especially baseball, with a cause campaign to raise valuable awareness and assistance.
His goal is national awareness campaign this summer along with the local charity There Goes My Hero. He and Jenn (mostly) will travel to 30 Major League Baseball stadiums and see 30 games in 30 days in the hopes of swabbing as many people as possible during the tour for the bone marrow database, with the trip concluding at the MLB All Star Game festivities in Cincinnati on July 13-14, 2015.
On March 20, 2014 Jennifer was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. After a long battle she received a bone marrow transplant on June 26th from an anonymous 21-year old donor from Germany, who saved her life and then wrote her a three-page letter telling her why he did it. “I did this for you because I believe it is our assignment to help people when they need help the most,” he wrote in a letter Jenn received in early August.
When Jenn was extremely ill in the spring, they put together a personal bucket lists of things they wanted to do when she got healthy – reasons for her to live when her diagnosis and her cancer felt the most frightening. She is now a survivor and they want to pay it forward by bringing national awareness to the power of saliva on a swab by using sports, athletes, celebrities and an old-fashioned barnstorming tour with baseball and stadiums and ballgames; they will hit all 30 stadiums in 30 days in June and July.
The trip begins on June 13 in Baltimore with the goal to make each city tour stop a success with the ability to swab 18-to-55 year-olds. They will work with local swabbing organizations in each city to “swab” folks for the bone marrow registry and use the hashtag and catch phrase #GiveASpit or #IGaveASpit to create conversation.
Along the way Nestor is calling in favors from a vast network of influencers, many mentioned privately but none ready for public comment, who will help raise awareness and drive a solid social campaign to give back to those who have helped him.
The one thing that few can deny is that Nestor Aparicio leaves his passions on his sleeve and rarely pulls any punches. That dedication may end up putting him in tight spots with the powers that be from time to time, but channeling all that passion into this type of cause related event can be invaluable for awareness fund raising and buzz generation. Maybe it’s not The Ice Bucket Challenge, but it is unique and authentic, and as we get through March Madness and on to the business of baseball could become the cause celebre’ for the year.
Bravo Nestor, congrats Jenn, and let’s see how we can help.
