St. Rose parishioners Debbie and Chris Solomita are familiar faces around the greater Belmar area.

Best known as the owners and operators of the Atlantic View Inn and for their active involvement in many programs and causes around coastal Monmouth County, the Solomitas are hoping scores of people get involved in their bone marrow donor drive in honor of their 14-year old niece, Traci Fox, Pequannock, and others in dire need of transplants.

The drive will be held Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. in St. Rose Parish Center, 603 Seventh Ave., Belmar.

The process, which involves signing a consent form and having your inner cheek swabbed with a Q-tip, takes only a few minutes and is for healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60.

The Solomitas are hoping that someone among those who turnout for the drive might indeed be a match for their niece, whom they describe as an active and beautiful girl fighting a rare form of cancer called chronic mylogenious leukemia.

In press releases, her aunt described how Traci “takes oral chemo meds daily but needs a bone marrow transplant.”

“None of Traci’s relatives are a compatible match,” Debbie Solomita wrote, “so her donor has to come from the National Bone Marrow Registry.”

She described how her niece, the Icla da Silva Foundation Person of the Year who has been featured in the American Cancer Society 2009 Annual Report, has battled the disease with fortitude and grace since 2007.

Debbie Solomita described the lengthy hospital stay her niece endured when the disease first manifested itself. “She spent a total of 30 days in the hospital where she “won bouts with hydrocephalus (swelling of the brain) and a staff infection.

“She endured countless blood and platelet transfusions and completed a very aggressive chemotherapy regimen.”

Solomita noted that her condition was so serious that she “also received a visit from the ‘Make a Wish Foundation’” reserved for children in lifethreatening situations.

With time, treatment and a lot of support and prayer, her aunt noted, Traci has been gradually able to resume most of her normal activities.

She is back at school and photographs on the Icla da Silva Foundation website show a smiling Traci playing softball, a game she dearly loves.

“She takes an oral chemotherapy drug daily and except for an occasional sick stomach and fatigue, she is tolerating the medicine well and never complains.”

Her aunt wrote that constant monitoring she receives includes a bone marrow draw every few months to make sure the chemo is controlling the disease.

“When testing reveals that the medication is no longer effective… Traci will have to undergo a bone marrow transplant with marrow from the donor bank.”

Drives to find a donor are one real way to find a donor Solomita said.

“Please come out to help Traci and thousands of other patients like her that are waiting for life saving bone marrow transplants.”

She noted that the Icla da Silva Foundation, whose mission is to save lives by recruiting donors and providing support services to children and adults with diseases treatable by marrow transplants, is picking up the $100 cost of typing and entering each person who enters the drive. “However, any and all monetary donations that would help offset the costs will be greatly appreciated,” she said.