Pat Pedraja is in remission from acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), a disease he's been fighting since he was 10. He got involved when he heard about a shortage of bone marrow donors, especially among Latinos and African-Americans. Pat is half Cuban; within days, he decided to help. He and his family logged more than 100,000 miles in a used RV dubbed the Donormobile, speaking in front of school assemblies and civic groups about the need for marrow volunteers. Pat's speaking engagements and Web site,
drivingfordonors.com, have signed up more than 14,000 people to be potential marrow donors.
Pat raised funds for his cause through one of the strangest - and boldest - advertising schemes ever created: he sold the rights to his bald head for local corporate advertising in every city he visited. "Pat had lost his hair because of the treatments," explained his mother. "So he auctioned space on his forehead on eBay and found a bidder for $5,000."
According to Andrews, all kinds of companies since then have paid for the privilege of their logo temporarily tattooed on Pat's head. More recently, Pat won the 2008 Do Something Award, from the teen-action group Do Something.org. One of the prizes was his picture on bags of Doritos chips. Check out Pat's new Web site:
www.theplanetus.com.
