Article and photos were submitted by Kaywyn J. Beswick, R.N./Morrison American Red Cross Blood Drive Coordinator pictured below.
The last ARC Blood Drive of 2018 that I coordinate was held on Friday, November 16, at Morrison United Methodist Church’s Heritage Hall. We are moving back to Thursdays. Our next drive will be on Thursday, January 24, 2019, from noon to 6:00 p.m., at Morrison United Methodist Church, 200 W. Lincolnway, Morrison, IL. Bring your neighbor, spouse, coworker, and friends!
Thank you to the MUMC for allowing us to hold our blood drives at their facility; we appreciate them faithfully accommodating the ARC with use of the Heritage Hall. Sponsor for the drive was the St. Mary’s Catholic Church; they have been the September Drive Sponsors the last three years. The ladies and gentlemen of St. Mary’s that managed the kitchen, purchased, prepared, and served food and beverages, and manned stations throughout the drive room that day were Lana Nugent, Mary Jane Linke, Jim and Betsy Prombo, Deb Hauptman, Connie Helms, Barb Winandy, Joan Vander Bleek, Vern and Mary Latwesen, Jackie Jevne, Fran Plude, Sara Tenboer, Sandy Schroeder, Bridie Bartnicke, Judy Conboy, Karen Stralow, Shirley Nowak, Shirley Blasdell, and Jeanie House. Thanks to the 20 Catholics who came to make the drive a success!
Appreciation is extended to my regular volunteers who come whenever I ask: Marcia Haag, JoAnn Kilgus, Deb Wikoff, Ron Wiersema, Sandy Schroeder, Bridie Bartnicke, Maisie Renkes, and Marilyn Akker.
Special thanks to my dependable “Jack of all trades” volunteer, Richard Swanson, who came to help unload the truck and returned after the drive to help load the truck, as well as donate a unit of blood.
The weather held out and did not rain, but it was cool, so we knew that winter was coming. We had 65 great folks (30 men and 35 women) come through the doors to donate their time and blood products to save lives. That is the most we have had come in for several drives; I cannot even remember the last time we had that many potential donors. I am so very proud of our generous community members!
There were only eight appointments that could not make it in (about 12%), and only six deferrals (10%), but we had 14 wonderful walk-ins, which is 22%. Our drives usually have 20-33% of the donors walking in without an appointment. This really helps us positively balance out the no-shows and deferrals. Remember, making an appointment brings more staff. The ARC does not staff for walk-ins, but they bring extra supplies, anticipating that 25% of the donors coming through the doors will be walk-ins. As far as I, the Coordinator, am concerned, I’d rather have people make an appointment, and be early, or late, or not be able to come in at all, so that we have more staff to accommodate everyone. There is no late or absenteeism concerns on my part; I am just glad you come to save lives. So please consider making an appointment to assure adequate staffing numbers for smoother blood donating experiences.
There were six double-red-cells “Power Red” donors (10% of our donors), giving two concentrated units of packed red blood cells. Cells are separated from the other blood components by an automated process, which safely and comfortably returns the rest of the blood components (WBC’s, platelets, and plasma) back to the donor. RBC’s are the most commonly transfused blood component, and, therefore, the most needed. Red Blood Cells carry oxygen throughout the body. They help trauma and surgery patients; those undergoing organ transplants; people with anemia, such as cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The DRC donors that day were Vern Latwesen, Vaughn Maxfield, Vernon “Sam” Adolph III, Kristine Honeycutt, Renee Temple, and Joe R. Bielema. We are grateful for their “twice as nice” donations, and they only have to come give blood every 112 days/every 4 months/3 times a year, getting credit for 6 units annually. Eligibility for Power Red donors necessitates the donor to meet certain height and weight requirements, as well as blood types O+, O-, A-, B-, and AB- donors, and a certain level of hemoglobin, measured with a finger-prick of blood. We usually have 12 appointment slots for DRC’s at our drives.
Whole Blood donors round out the rest of our list of fantastic people that offered their time and blood products at the drive. Whole blood is the “full ladle of beef stew”, when I use the comparison of our blood to the delicious entrée. Imagine that your red blood cells are the chunks of meat, the WBC’s (white blood cells) are the potatoes, the platelets are the carrots, and the plasma is the juice/gravy/broth. WB (whole blood) donors are giving a unit, or a full ladle of all types of blood components. Then the unit can be separated out to give RBC’s, platelets, and plasma in three different transfusion bags, to save up to three lives! Our wonderful WB donors were Richard Swanson, Mary Latwesen, Dale Beswick, Craig Brady, Brad Bielema, Wally Kilgus, Stephanie Vavra, Cal Vandermyde, Brooke Newman, Deb Adolph, Lori Ploenzke, Bill Kuehl, Chris Hawkins, Luke Vander Bleek, Connie Helms, Renee Vanderlaan, Joe Sage, Lisa Nice, Mark Schuler, Lyle Bush, Margaret Barr, Susan Noble, Judy McCulloh, Jim Prombo, Dave Temple, Alice Beveroth, Tim West, Mary Ellen Brackemyer, Julie Brown, Sarah Bull, Beth Wroble, Alyssa Meiers, Ken Gooley, Pam Shank, Marian Dykema, Tammy Pruis, Susan Gomez, Nancy Shank, Ava Valdez, Tim Nye, Kari Forster, Valerie Boles, Kaywyn Beswick, and 14 persons (8 men and 6 women) who did not want their names published in the Whiteside News-Sentinel newspaper or on the www.thecity1.com website. Also, one person had to leave before donating, due to the long wait that many, unfortunately, had to endure. The ARC usually sends us 7 or 8 staff members who are phlebotomists to our drives, which are some of the largest drives in our county. But there were only 5, hard-working, courteous ARC employees present. Some donors complained, and I sent texts to my donor representative, Janet Jarvis, and handed her email address out to a couple donors who were not happy about the wait. I tell donors to usually plan on an hour from coming into the drive door and walking back outside to leave. Several of them come on their lunch breaks, or even their day off (like me). I know that there were several that waited longer than usual this time. The ARC is working on getting us more staff, and possibly a third DRC machine. Hopefully, future drives will become a little more efficient. In the meantime, stop and smell the coffee, listen to our good music, enjoy our great food, and engage in some fun conversations. I will also tell you that almost all the people leave feeling good about their simple task, with a smile on their face, and a rewarding awareness of the impact that they have on a patient’s life. Some will always find something bad in everything around them; let’s not encourage negativism. I want people to have a good donation experience; I am a “glass-half-full” kind of gal!
One final comment. The ARC wanted to show their appreciation by giving a free pie to the donors for their Thanksgiving table. Sullivan’s Foods graciously donated 70 individual pies, free of charge to the ARC. Thank you, Sullivan’s; you are always so generous to our community.
