Thursday, May 06, 2010
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Church ladies make blood drive 'slice of Americana'
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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These days, Margaret Mitchell and Ruth Farmer are out for blood.
The two senior citizens are mad -- mad about collecting blood, that is, for the American Red Cross.
They'll take it from just about any healthy person, 16 or older, a pint at a time, Monday from noon to 7 at St. Philip Lutheran Church on Williamson Road. (Donors under 17 must have a parent's written permission.)
Monday's event at the North Roanoke County church is the church's 34th blood drive. The first was in 1994 and they have been held twice a year ever since.
They are the essence of a vast and truly grass-roots community effort from which nearly everyone benefits.
The Red Cross' 46-county Appalachian Blood Services Region, headquartered here in Roanoke, conducts between 2,000 and 2,500 blood drives each year.
In total, they will yield about 70,000 pints of blood for patients at 37 hospitals, plus 14,000 pints of platelets, which most often go to cancer and leukemia patients, said Bob Lutjen, the regional Red Cross spokesman.
The drives are big and small, at businesses, high schools, colleges, civic organizations, municipal facilities (such as the Roanoke Civic Center) and at community centers, churches and synagogues.
Each and every one of them is important, he said, but St. Philip stands out.
Its volunteers have honed the organizational aspects almost into a science. For that reason, the Red Cross uses St. Philip as an example for other organizations seeking to mount their own drives.
"These people are exceptional. They take it very personally -- it's a huge commitment," Lutjen said. "Every time, they meet or exceed their goal."
The keys to that are Mitchell, 78, and Farmer, who's a few years younger. They were members of the church's Social Ministry Committee and got involved 16 years ago at the urging of St. Philip's then-pastor, the Rev. Chip Gunsten.
"He asked us to find some social ministry project that we could do that would be an outreach project for the church," said Mitchell, a retired nurse. "I knew how difficult it was for cancer patients -- at that time -- to get blood."
That first drive produced 105 pints, and the rest have produced 3,600 more pints in all.
The average blood drive collects about 35 pints, Lutjen said. "It's the biggest church drive we have by far in the Roanoke Valley," he said.
Mitchell and Farmer plan the semiannual events, set deadlines and recruit volunteers to work the event.
Via telephone and mail they also recruit and schedule virtually all donors so there aren't long lines that leave them waiting for hours to donate.
It is also an old-timey fun event, said Bill Johnson, the Red Cross' assistant director of donor recruitment. He called the St. Philip blood drive "a slice of Americana."
At least 30 volunteers from the church will be involved, aiding donors and providing them with copious amounts of food and drink.
They will cook hot dogs and hot-dog chili, and prepare chicken-, tuna-, egg-, turkey- and ham-salad sandwiches -- and cookies, pies, cakes and drinks.
Two of the folks who will be there Monday are Charles and Nancy Shadix, who moved from Toledo, Ohio, to the Roanoke Valley in 1986.
Charles Shadix, 62, has been donating blood at each drive since the St. Philip event began. He is now above 5 gallons.
Nancy Shadix, also 62, is one of those folks who used to faint at the sight of a needle. But she conquered that fear and began donating a couple of years after her husband did. Her total now approaches 4 gallons, including blood she's given at other drives.
Their daughter, Paulette Robertson, and their grandson also are donating.
The couple's decision to give blood came after each had a sister who died of cancer. That reinforced the notion of how fragile life is.
"We just realized, where are [patients] supposed to get the blood they need?" Nancy Shadix told me Wednesday.
"If there is no blood available, people are going to die."
Dan Casey's column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
