Academy Logo

June 11, 2025

 

Dear Columbus Academy Families,

 

We are thrilled to share that a bone marrow match who is also a willing donor has been found for Academy lower-schooler Kaia! She still has a long road ahead, though, and will soon be leaving to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to prepare for next steps in the transplant process.

 

Our student-run Service Board is organizing a car parade on the evening of June 16 to drive by Kaia’s house in Upper Arlington to show her all the support from our community before she leaves for the next six months of treatments.

Kaia Car Parade Flyer

Please click here to register for this event and to receive further details from the Service Board leaders, who are hoping to have everyone registered by the end of Friday in order to collect enough materials and notify the UA police about how many cars to expect.


The meeting point is at Thompson Park South (2020 McCoy Rd., Upper Arlington), where a shelter space is reserved starting at 6:30 p.m. so people can park to decorate their cars. The procession will assemble around 7:30 to drive to Kaias home just a few minutes from the park.


More Screening Events

 

Also, our school nurses continue to volunteer their time to assist the National Marrow Donor Program with screening events to add more potential matches for others like Kaia to the NMDP registry.

 

The following two swab events that are open to the public have been coordinated with Academy alumna and parent Kelly Casto ’98, P’29 ’31 at local CASTO properties:

 

  • Tuesday, June 17, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., New Albany Square Center, 4860 N. Hamilton Rd., Columbus OH 43230


  • Wednesday, June 18, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Walmart, 7730 Sawmill Rd., Dublin OH 43016

 

And a swab event has been coordinated with CA Board member and parent Paul Judge P’33 ’36 for Axium Packaging employees:

 

  • Friday, June 20, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Axium Corporate Office, 9005 Smiths Mill Rd. N., New Albany, OH 43054

 

Anyone between the ages of 18-40 can request a screening kit be mailed to them by visiting https://my.bethematch.org/TeamKaia or by using the QR code below. Our school nurses are always available to help or to answer any questions.

Team Kaia QR Code