Posted: Thursday, December 17, 2009 --- 6:00pm

Danielle Schuld is a Junior at Portage High School. She also happens to be a Senior Girl Scout on a mission to help those who are struggling with life-threatening diseases.

Nearly 6,000 people each day need a bone marrow transplant. Of those 6,000, only 2 out of 10 are able to receive the life saving marrow due to the requirements needed for an exact match. That's a statistic that Danielle hopes to change.

" She had the idea through her Girl Scout program to bring a bone marrow drive to our community, so she asked Divine Savior Healthcare for their help in providing a facility, a place and some help promoting the drive to reach her goal for Girl Scouts," says Haley Gilman, Communications Specialist with Divine Savior Healthcare in Portage.

That goal is to earn a prestigious Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. In order for her to achieve it, she needed a minimum of 65 hours of volunteer work directed toward a need in the local community. Her inspiration...a 10 year old Portage girl.

"I was looking around on the internet and there was a local 10-year-old from Portage that was in need of a marrow transplant this past year and I was interested in becoming a donor trying to help her out, but you have to be 18 to become a marrow donor," says Danielle. "So once I saw the Be The Match registry on the Internet, I was like oh, well I can give back this way by signing other people up."

She hoped to register 50 people today but by 9:30 this morning she had already surpassed her goal. One hundred three people registered today, potentially saving someone's life, all thanks to one very motivated 16-year-old.

"I'm sure she's going to be very successful in whatever she does. The fact that she took the initiative to do something like this speaks a lot for her character and what she's been able to achieve." Says Gilman.

If you would like more information about registering with the National Marrow Donor Program, please visit www.bethematch.org.