On a beautiful summer day St. Anselm Parish hosted its second Blood Drive of 2017. The event, which is one of three sponsored annually by the St. Anselm Holy Name Society, provides much needed supplies of blood and ‘blood products’ for the New York Blood Center.
Saint Anselm Catholic Academy’s Meletia Hall is an ideal location for blood donations as it’s space permits regular blood donations as well as collection by the ALYX Component Collection System, in which constituent elements of a donor’s blood are separated, allowing for multiple uses. The process is more time consuming than a ‘regular donation’ and not all donors qualify for the process as higher iron levels and other requirements are considered.
On July 30th more than three-dozen people came to the Meletia Hall to ‘brave’ the now fully digital registration process. The updated process, which first made its appearance at St. Anselm in 2016, eliminates the need for the laborious transcribing of information from sheets filled out by hand into digital format. Many arrived with bar coded blood donor cards, or with letters from the NY Blood Center with the bar coding printed on them. Donors who had left their card or letter at home, or didn’t have one, were able to register by showing a New York State ID. Most potential donors found the digital process – “easy”, while personnel from the New York Blood Center assisted donors who were digitally challenged.
After completing their blood donation, donors blissfully enjoyed sugars and carbs at the canteen table – Oreos, Lorna Doons, popcorn crisps, pretzels, and fruit juices – to bring their blood sugar and blood pressure levels back up to normal.
How grateful the many New Yorkers, who receive the gift of life, will be to the donors – true “lifesavers” –for their thoughtfulness. A special thank you to the parish and Msgr. Maloney for making the Meletia Hall space available for the New York Blood Center (and its wonderful staff) and for the dozens of donors.
For information about future blood drives in our area contact the New York Blood Center, go to:
The New York Blood Center
1-800-933-BLOOD(2566)
www.nybloodcenter.org
All the best,
The St. Anselm Publicity Committee