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Chuckanut to Bellingham

Day 11 · Completed

Bone Marrow Awareness Day — Bellingham

Bellingham, WA

Bellingham’s four towns and a wider donor search

This day on the route

Date
The day
Awareness Day
Walked
8.7 miles

Day 11, September 17: a Bone Marrow Awareness Day in Bellingham, with 8.7 miles walked through the city and north toward Ferndale. She slept in her tent on a friend’s property that strangers helped her find.

Gouache view of an empty bench on wet stone paving beneath leafy branches, overlooking brick rooftops, a broad bay and wooded hills.
Illustration inspired by Bellingham, WA.

On September 17 Jeana made this her Bone Marrow Awareness Day in Bellingham, from City Hall to the county, and walked 8.7 miles in all, north toward Ferndale. The city grew from four bayside communities.

Bellingham grew from four earlier bayside communities: Whatcom, Sehome, Bellingham and Fairhaven. The city’s consolidation chart shows a series of mergers, culminating in the city of Bellingham in 1903. The names survive in the local geography, including Fairhaven on the approach from Chuckanut Drive.

She had a shower and breakfast at the Lighthouse Mission and walked down into town. She talked with a member of the city council and with Whatcom County’s communications team, then picked up her route and headed north toward Ferndale. At Goods Local Brews the bartender, Bree, asked patrons whether anyone knew where she could pitch a tent, and Sharon and her friend Blake arranged a spot on a friend’s property.

One useful subject for further reading is matching. NMDP explains that HLA information is inherited and that ancestry can affect the search for an unrelated donor. It also describes advances allowing some patients to receive a transplant from a donor who is not a full match. More potential donors give transplant teams a wider search, alongside the treatment options that continue to develop.

From the road

Her awareness day in Bellingham, from city to county, and strangers who found a spot for the tent

She made this her bone marrow awareness day in Bellingham. She had a shower and breakfast at the Lighthouse Mission and walked down into town, leaving her walking poles and her Swiss Army knife behind at the mission.

She called on City Council Member Hannah Stone, who was excited about the walk and about what the City of Bellingham can do to save the lives of patients who need a stem cell or bone marrow transplant. Hannah suggested she take the same request to the county offices, so she did. Riley at the county was interested in working with the city on a Bone Marrow Awareness Day, and in putting the information on the county website, which is his area. A newsletter, a website: wonderful ideas for sharing, she says. Text JADA to 61474 to join NMDP.

Then it was back up the hill to the Lighthouse Mission for the poles and the knife.

Someone had suggested the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship for a bed. They were not able to help, but a gentleman there suggested the Way Station, which was on her list anyway because it helps people with their laundry. So she walked back down past downtown to the Way Station and did her washing.

She had a Zoom call booked with Cristina from NMDP, to talk about a bone marrow drive in Olympia at the end of the walk in October, so she found somewhere to sit down, take the call and charge her phone.

Then she walked back up the same hill and picked up the route towards Ferndale. At Menace Brewing a patron bought her a carbonated water, because she was so thirsty from the walking, and staying hydrated really matters. She charged the phone some more and rang round for somewhere to sleep, without any luck.

Further on she came to Goods Local Brews. The bartender, Bree, heard what she was doing and asked some of the patrons whether they knew anywhere she could pitch a tent. A woman called Sharon and her friend Blake were a great help, and arranged a spot for the tent on a friend’s property. It was off the route, and she expected to owe the miles back, but it turned out she had already walked a tenth of a mile past it. That made her happy.

As she and Blake talked, it came out that Blake lives on the Olympic Peninsula, in the town of Quilcene, right on a later stretch of the route. They swapped details, and Blake is looking forward to putting her up when she gets there.

She ended the day in her tent, ready for a good night’s rest.

I like it when my sleeping place is on my route, but sometimes you just have to be flexible.

Jeana Moore
Water pouring from a pale blue pipe into a round concrete pool, seen through black iron railings beside Whatcom Creek.Whatcom Creek running white over rocks beneath a wooden footbridge, the trees just starting to turn.The same wooden footbridge from lower down, the creek breaking over a ledge of dark rock beneath it.A brown park sign reading Welcome to Whatcom Creek, the park closed from dusk to dawn, with the fishing rules listed underneath.Whatcom Creek running down a steep-sided channel, a small cascade over mossy rocks upstream and white water pouring over smooth, potholed dark rock in the foreground.Water spilling down a staircase of moss-covered rocks under overhanging branches.A broad cascade of white water tumbling over mossy boulders.A long blue sign reading WELCOME, with the City of Bellingham seal as the O and the word for welcome in a dozen languages above and below it, under a clock on a wood-panelled wall.A calm stretch of harbour water under a clear blue sky, a low concrete bridge crossing it, with waterfront sheds, sailboat masts and a crane beyond and hills in the distance.Small red-and-white flowers, shaped like tiny lips, among bright green leaves.One leg of a red granite arch, its bronze plaque headed 1907: In memory of immigrants from India driven out by mob riots.The red granite Healing and Reconciliation arch standing on a brick plaza, a plaque on each leg, under a big shade tree.Evening light through a gap in the trees: the bay, a hillside town along the far shore and hills beyond, under an orange sky.
Distance walked
8.7 miles
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Choose where you live

Continue to the official registry that serves you. It decides eligibility, handles registration and contacts you if you may match a patient.

United States — NMDP

NMDP accepts new registry members who are 18 to 35, live in the US, its territories or freely associated states, can meet NMDP’s health guidelines, and are not already registered through another US organization. Joining happens at home: you answer a few questions on NMDP’s site, they mail you a free cheek-swab kit, and you swab and send it back. Once you are a member you stay listed until you are 61 unless you ask to be removed — 61 is when NMDP takes you off, not an age at which you can join. NMDP makes the final eligibility decision.

Check the listed age range

Visit NMDP

NMDP — Join the registry · checked Sep 1, 2026

Prefer to text? Send JADA to 61474 and NMDP will take it from there.

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Sources

Local history and background reading for this stop.

  1. Bellingham consolidation flowchart — checked Sep 5, 2026
  2. Matching blood stem cell donors and patients — checked Sep 5, 2026
The flyer: STOP BLOOD CANCER set in tall letters over a dark plum page, a quote, and a QR code beside a text-to-join line for the U.S.One standing face of the table tent: the same headline and quote on the left, a large QR code on the right.

Take it off the screen

Print it. Put it where people already stand.

A coffee counter, a church foyer, a break room, a race table. Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk, and a number to text for anyone who would rather not scan — no app, no wifi, nothing to hand back.Every sheet carries the code that opens Jeana’s walk — nothing to install, nothing to hand back. The number to text printed beside it is for joining NMDP, which registers people who live in the U.S., its territories and the freely associated states. If you live anywhere else, find your country’s registry.

Everything else for running a drive

Rather be the one at the table?

Host a registration drive at your school, work or place of worship, raise funds, or lend a skill. Tell us what you have in mind and we will help you plan it.

Ways to volunteerHost a registration drive