Paulene is well known for her compassion for her patients. One of her patients was a 25 year old with leukemia. Through her many discussions with the patient, Paulene learned that the patient was awaiting a bone marrow transplant. The patient expressed to Paulene that many individuals don't realize that one has to specifically request to be registered to become a bone marrow donor when donating blood. The patient acknowledged to Paulene that her prognosis was poor without the bone marrow transplant and that, although she had been on the recipient list, a match had not been found for her.

Touched by the circumstances of her patient, Paulene was determined to make a difference. She educated her sons about the difficulties in getting bone marrow donors and she and her sons educated friends, family members, schoolmates, members of her sons' basketball team and the ROTC students. Paulene rented a van and transported over 100 volunteers to the blood bank to donate blood and register to become bone marrow donors. While there is no way to know if any of the volunteers were a match for Paulene's patient, she and her sons clearly increased the chances for potential recipients to have a match to a donor.