Vicky Kepler Didato couldn’t let go.

An old State College Area High School classmate, Margy Meyer Davis, was fighting bone marrow

cancer and needed a transplant. Her plight touched Didato — cancer had claimed her parents; a brother had survived. She tried to be a donor but wasn’t a match. She kept thinking of Davis. “You pray and say, ‘Is there anything I can do?’ ” Didato said.

Their 40th reunion, in Pine Grove Mills, approached. Didato would travel from her home in Wooster, Ohio. Davis could not attend. She awaited a transplant under quarantine at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore.

Two days before the Class of 1971 met, Didato had a flash. She knew what to do.

A memorable class gift was the result.

At the recent reunion, class members inspired by Didato’s pitch decided to hold a donor drive and fundraiser instead of buying a traditional plaque or statue. They raised about $3,000 and started a fund to help Davis pay expenses not covered by insurance. Several of the 100 attendees — almost a fifth of the original class — registered as potential bone marrow donors.

The national Be The Match Foundation, which assisted Didato, was so impressed, it’s touting the class as an example for other reunions to emulate.

“Our class pulled together,” Didato said.

Davis, whose family owns Meyer Dairy, tacked 40 or so cards and notes from classmates on her apartment wall. Like her family’s love, the messages and class gift reminded her that she’s not struggling alone.

“I’m still totally speechless, and just very, very humbled by their generosity and their support and their prayers,” she said.

Moved to act

When Didato stumbled upon the YouTube video this winter, she had not seen Davis since school.

Back then, she was a majorette; Didato was a cheerleader. They knew each other but ran in different circles.

“That’s why the whole thing seems strange,” Didato said. “It’s not as if we were best friends who got reconnected.”

But the video moved Didato nonetheless. Davis’ son-in-law, Knut Hill, was skiing across Michigan to raise money for her. In 2008, she had been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, an aggressive cancer. Her only hope for a cure was a bone marrow transplant.

Initially, Davis’ sister and two grown daughters appeared to be suitable matches. But Davis had antibodies to their blood, and procedures to suppress them failed.

Several matches turned up after Davis was placed in national and international bone marrow databases. One potential donor looked right but found out she was pregnant during the testing.

Last December, another donor backed out. Davis slipped into acute leukemia and needed a month of intense chemotherapy before resuming her search.

Didato, a therapist, wanted to be the one.

“I just can’t explain it,” she said. “It just grabbed me.”

After tests ruled her out, Didato kept in touch with Davis. A friendship grew. So did Didato’s desire to help.

Then came inspiration. Davis’ quarantine had scrapped her reunion plans. Didato envisioned her attending in spirit.

In her town, she ordered a banner made with photos of Davis, the printer finishing the job in 12 hours instead of the normal week. She contacted Sarah Brooks Horan, a Be The Match Foundation account executive in Philadelphia, who liked the idea of a benefit gift immediately.

“I just think it was magnificent that she was able to incorporate it into her event,” Horan said.

With the reunion less than 48 hours away, Horan jumped aboard, creating a page titled “The Class of ’71 Saves Lives!” on the foundation’s website. She made flyers explaining the Be the Match Registry and encouraging donations to Davis and to the foundation, which helps offset the $100 cost for each person registered.

“It was a last-minute brainchild, and we put it all together,” Horan said.

The rest was up to Davis’ classmates.

‘What we need to do’

To the reunion picnic Didato brought the banner, candles and photos of deceased classmates.

They became a memorial — and part of her plea. Years before, her class had given a statue to the high school. She proposed something different for 2011.

Acknowledging the departed, she said sick classmates also were missing. She told about Davis’ predicament, then explained how the class could help. Through the crowd passed a basket of cards and envelopes.

Didato noted the flames flickering in the warm night.

“I remember saying, ‘Five years from now, we don’t want to light another candle in the back,’ ” she said. “I just felt it spoke to people.” Mike Morse got the message.

A Penn State kinesiology professor and cancer survivor, he knew what Davis and her family were going through. He knew the Meyers as kind, generous folks. And he remembered his father’s advice: “You can’t change the world. But Mike, do what you can to make your world a little better.”

Here was a chance. He agreed to the collection and added his share.

“My reaction was, ‘Are you kidding me? This is what we need to do,’ ” Morse said.

Carolyn and Joe Meyer appreciated the gesture for their daughter.

“It means an awful lot,” Joe Meyer said. “For her graduation class to do that after all these years, I thought it was a fantastic thing for them to do.”

Davis’ long wait may be over soon: A donor stands ready. If her health stays the same, she’ll have a transplant Wednesday.

Even then, she’ll have to recover in Baltimore for at least two months, incurring more expenses — a caregiver, medications, rent for her place two blocks from the hospital. Insurance doesn’t cover everything. She could pay $10,000 to $20,000 this year for prescriptions alone.

The Margy Meyer Benevolent Fund should help with some of her bills, but the class gift’s impact may extend beyond one woman hoping to see a fourth grandchild due in December. At Meyer Dairy, reunion leaders set up a Be The Match display to raise awareness of bone marrow cancer and donor registration.

Horan said the reunion’s drive could become a new template for cancer fundraising.

“They were really able to get the ball rolling on this, and I think it was really wonderful,” she said. “I hope it takes off.”

For her part, Didato credits her classmates for caring.

“I’m very grateful,” she said. “I’m just glad it didn’t turn out to be a missed opportunity.”

Chris Rosenblum can be reached at 231-4620.