OCEAN CITY, Md. – As they said in the song from the Bill Murray film “Meatballs, “Are you ready for the summer? Are you ready for the sunshine?”
Here we are in Delmarva where the Memorial Day weekend heralded the unofficial start of the summer season, and Thursday, June 1 was the first day of meteorological summer.
It was also time for a trip to the beach for the Ocean City Summer Blood Drive, and the locals were ready. Blood Bank of Delmarva Account Manager Bryan Shepherd booked a whopping135 appointments for the Ocean City draw. That made Vice President Emily Cunningham and Director, Donor Resources Nicole Pineault (Bryan’s supervisor) very happy as we sorely needed the units this week.
This was the third straight year Bryan brought us back to the Roland E. Powell Convention Center for a stand-alone blood drive during the summer in the modern era. Prior to that, we had only been coming to Ocean City in January for our largest blood drive of the year.
We hope to keep coming back for the foreseeable future.
So do donors like Jody Wright. Jody donates with us in the Ocean City Convention Center in the winter and the summer. (And some believe she is Technical Training Specialist Lynda Letts’ doppelgänger.)
Matthew Porada and Jessica Wieber, also appreciate the convenience. This was the second time Jessica donated, with her first time occurring this past winter in the Ocean City Convention Center. We’re glad she came back.
Thank you to Supervisors Madeline Hernandez and Jesse Latham for overseeing a large Ocean City crew that rivaled the size of the Christiana Donor Center. And thanks to our volunteers and donors who made this draw a success.