Kaywyn J. Beswick, R.N./ARC Morrison Blood Program Leader, submitted the photo of Power Cell donors. The Editor submitted a photo after her 81st donated pint (ten+ gallons.)
The second 2026 American Red Cross Morrison Community Blood Drive was held on Thursday, March 19, at Morrison United Methodist Church. Many thanks to MUMC for providing the ARC a space to facilitate the March and July blood drives, so as to not interrupt the Knights of Columbus Lenten fish fry dinners being held at St. Mary Church in March. Bethesda Lutheran Church Ladies were the sponsor of the canteen. Bethesda ladies who purchased groceries, prepared sandwiches, and baked cookies for the donors, volunteers, and staff were Nancy Usterbowski, Andrea Dalton, and Monica Anderson. Thank you, ladies, for the delicious egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches, and all the terrific homemade goodies. We greatly appreciate BLC for sponsoring the March blood drive canteen every year. Appreciation to Carole Patton for getting the post-escorts, to help assist donors from the donation lounger to the canteen table; gratitude to Rick Barr and Pat Popkin for escorting, as well as Stephanie Mann for assisting Patton in serving the sandwiches. Special gratefulness to the certified ARC volunteers who help at the registration desk and make appointments for the next blood drive: Pat Pendgraft and Irma Russell. The drives always run smoothly, when they are at the helm!
We had 46 people come through our doors. These wonderful whole blood donors were Lory Oudekerk (in memory of Phelan Oudekerk), Pam Shank, Cathie Downs, Lyle Bush, Deb Adolph (in memory of Terry Adolph), Kevin Hook (in memory of Jonelle Hook), Stephanie Vavra, Lisa Nice, Bryan Vogel, Kevin Larsen, Sheila Sonberg (in memory of Ron Sonberg), Craig Brady, Renee Vanderlaan, Bill Anderson, Chris Hawkins, Beth Wroble, Nancy Shank, Ken Gooley, Cal Venema, Troy Peppers, Kaywyn Beswick (in honor of all military personel), Dennis Zickert, Valerie Acosta, Harvey Tegeler, Connie Tegeler, Rod Olson, Amy Oudekerk (in memory of Phelan Oudekerk), Julie Brown, Dave Temple, Joe R. Bielema, Tim West, Kari Forster (in memory of Bob English), Casey Goodell, and four women and four men, (including a first-time-donor) who requested that their names not be published. Thanks to each of you for helping send blood products to patients in need.
Milestones for gallon pins were attained by seven donors. Dennis Zickert gained a one gallon pin. One gentleman earned a four-gallon-pin, and two gentlemen earned five-gallon-pins, but they requested that their names be withheld from publishing. Cathie Downs, acquired a 13-gallon-pin. Rod Olson, reached sixteen-gallon-pin status. Pam Shank, accomplished an eighteen-gallon-pin! Seven fabulous regular donors have helped save a total of 1144 patients’ live. What a powerful achievement!
These fantastic double-red-cell/Power Red donors each supplied two units of packed red blood cells. We have such a generous bunch of donors!
The ARC phlebotomists were short-staffed, down by two workers that day. They mostly kept up with the steady flow of kind folks giving of their time and blood products to help out patients in need. We barely noticed any lag time in how quickly donors went through the donation process. The ARC goal for the drive was 57 good units to leave Morrison, so our efficiency was only 78.9%. Unfortunately, there were 11 cancellations and nine “no-shows,” but only six deferrals, which is 10.5%. (ARC expects 10-12% of donors to get deferred.) Three wonderful “walk-ins” helped balance out the deficit. Yes, ARC takes walk-ins most of the time now; they quit during the pandemic, but we now encourage it. Rapid Pass users numbered 32, which is 71.1% of all those who came in; that is an excellent number! Rapid Pass online preregistration helps speed things up for donors and staff alike.
Every two seconds someone in the U. S. A. needs a blood transfusion. Become a blood donor today. It is easy and very rewarding. About 37% of the U. S. population is eligible to donate blood, but only about 7% of those actually donate; that is a very distressing number. Blood cannot be artificially synthesized! It has to be taken from a donor and transfused to a recipient, in a certain number of days. The supply used to be seven days out from actually needing to be used, but now that number is down to three days!
Please consider becoming a blood donor. We hold blood drives as often as our donors are eligible to donate, at least every 56 days (112 days for Double Red donors), or every other month, totaling six blood drives a year. With 365 days in a year, and 46 weeks total between the six blood drives, there are a couple blood drives that end up nine-to-ten weeks apart.
Double-red-cell donors have to be a certain height and weight (BMI) with certain blood types (O+, O-, A-, B-, and AB-) to give two units of packed Red Blood Cells. These donors give two units when donating, which helps two people.
Whole blood donors give one unit which helps up to three patients. The donated blood is divided into a unit each of pRBC, plasma, and platelets.
I write a verification for working people who need a work release to come donate blood. I am writing those now, for you donors, who want paid for leaving work to give blood (IDOT accepts these.)
The next ARC Morrison Community blood drive will be at St. Mary Church, 13320 Garden Plain Road, on Thursday, May 14, from noon to 5:45 p.m. Crossroads Community Church will sponsor the May canteen. With so many great churches in our community, I challenge all the churches to see which one can get the most blood donors to come give! I know that we have wonderful donors affiliated with almost all 14 churches in the Morrison area.
Let’s come hold out our arm for the benefit of up-to-three patients!
Have a great spring, and stay safe and healthy!