Barenaked Ladies Out For Blood!

By ERIK MISSIO, ChartAttack.com, July 10th, 2001.

When the Barenaked Ladies make a quick detour from their U.S. tour to play a gig this Thursday night in Toronto with Sarah Harmer, they'll also be taking the time to raise awareness about the needs of CBS.

Uh, no, not that CBS... they've been doing well for themselves ever since that whole reality-television thing blew up. Instead, we're talking about Canadian Blood Services who are, as usual, in dire need of blood and bone marrow donations.

The group will have a tent set up outside the Molson Amphitheatre show to inform the masses of the importance of both donating blood at Toronto-area clinics and of signing up to the CBS Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry — a list that matches people willing to donate with those in need.

It's a safe bet that the band's working with the charity group not only because it's a good cause, but also because keyboardist Kevin Hearn himself benefited from a bone marrow transplant three years ago during a battle with leukemia. Getting more names on the registry means more Canadians will have a chance for survival.

Besides, it's not exactly a secret that CBS needs a lot more blood than they currently have in order to help those who require transfusions or surgery. The group is trying to collect 230,000 units of blood between now and Labour Day as part of their well-intentioned-but-lanely-named "Have a Ball" campaign. Operating out of 42 permanent collection sites, 11 bone marrow donor centres and more than 10,000 donor clinics, people can find out more information on CBS at their website. Of course, if you're going to the Barenaked Ladies' show, go down to the tent and pick up a brochure.