This report was written by Kaywyn J. Beswick, R.N./Morrison Community ARC Blood Team.
The next American Red Cross Community Blood Drive will be held from noon to 6:00 p.m., on Thursday, January 20, 2022, at St. Mary Catholic Church, 13320 Garden Plain Road, Morrison, IL. The sponsor will be K “Be Amazing” Yoga.
Please join us by bringing your spouse, neighbor, co-worker, friend, or relative. Each of you will save up-to-three lives in less than an hour! It is an easy way to “give back!”
On Thursday, November 18, 2021, the American Red Cross Blood Drive was held at St. Mary Catholic Church, 13320 Garden Plain Road, Morrison. St Mary’s Council of Catholic Women was the sponsor. Providing the groceries and preparing the canteen sandwiches and cookies were Lana Nugent, Fran Plude, Connie Helms, Mary Latwesen, Judy Conboy, and Joan Vander Bleek. The Knights of Columbus assisted by clearing out the church hall the evening before the drive and returning to put everything back; they were Terry and Ruth Hoehn. Volunteers in charge of stations in the room were Pat Pendgraft (certified ARC volunteer), and St Mary parishioners Mary and Vern Latwesen, Deb Hauptman, and Shayne Prange. Thank you, St. Mary Catholic Church, for allowing us to host the blood drive in your church hall since the pandemic began. We very much appreciate your hospitality.
The ARC goal for the drive was 59 “good units” at the end of the day, but we fell short. Out of 70 available appointment slots, 66 got filled before the blood drive began. We had only 57 people come through the doors. Also, there were seven “no shows” (five of which were Double Red Cell donors) and three “call-offs” (two were ill.) This totaled ten spots vacated, which was 15%. There were also six people deferred from donating, which was 10.5%. These numbers are not the best. The ARC is reporting severe shortages of the blood supply right now. I hope to contact all who couldn’t come in and get them scheduled for an appointment at the next drive.
The wonderful folks who did take time out of their day to save some lives were Julie Damhoff, Randy Kuehl, Lorna Temple, Teresa Slagle, Bryan Vogel, Bill Kuehl, Melinda Cadogan, Larry Troester, Lisa Nice, Mark Schuler, Debra Knapp, Deb Adolph, Mathew Newman, Pam Shank, Chris Hawkins, Martha Kophamer, Joan Vander Bleek, Beth Wroble, Jean Zinnen, Laura Smith, Marsha Geerts, Keith Wiersema, Dick Wieneke, Carolyn Aiken, Kelsie Lowery, Tim West, David Temple, Nancy Shank, Brooke Newman, Philip Olt, Lyle Bush, Sue Gomez, Sarah Bull, Shannon Andrews, Mary Latwesen, Vern Latwesen, Connie Swanson-DeSpain, Kaywyn Beswick, and nine others (five men and four women) who did not want their names published as blood donors.
The terrific DRC/Power Red Cell donors, who gave the equivalent of two packed RBC units, were Cal Vandermyde, Mark Zinnen, Cindy Hoogheem, Craig Brady, Tom Rosenbalm, Dave Boyles, Vern Latwesen, and one gentleman who did not want his name published as a donor.
I am very appreciative of our generous community, donors, and volunteers both.