MILTON, Del. – Once again, Dogfish Head sent a squadron of employees to donate and brought up the numbers at the latest Blood for a Brew Summer Tour drive held Tuesday, August 29 at the brewery’s headquarters in Sussex County.
In our third annual Blood for a Brew tour, Dogfish Head traditionally holds two blood drives back-to-back in late August, and Tuesday’s edition did not disappoint as 50 of 66 appointments were booked solid. We also had a few walk-ins besides.
Several of the Dogfish Head employees were among the donors, including Sergio Velasquez, Christine Palmer, Paul Jacques, Alison Ruark, Piper Glattacker, Amber Otteni and Tyler Budnavage.
“Since it’s here, I might as well,” Alison said.
“You get to take a couple hours off work to come help some people out,” Christine said.
Amber, also among the Dogfish Head employees, was among the donors who donated at Blood for a Brew earlier this summer at Dewey Beer.
So was Sussex County resident Pat Law, who also donated Tuesday at Dogfish Head. Pat enjoys helping people with his O negative blood.
“I’m glad I could do it,” he said. “It doesn’t cost me anything – just a little bit of time.”
We also saw whole blood donor Tina Hilligoss return after donating at Dogfish Head last year.
In addition, WRDE Coast TV journalist Torie Seagraves covered the blood drive for the 5 o’clock and 6 o’clock news hours. Ever the intrepid reporter, Torie read this week’s email from the Blood Bank of Delmarva letting local residents know that several unfilled appointments combined with a higher than normal no-show rate was putting a damper on collections during this difficult summer. Moreover, Torie ended up being one of the walk-in donors.
Thank you, young lady.
Speaking of youth, donors Ellie Davis and Paul Monitzer heard about the blood drive at Dogfish Head Brewery and made appointments. They were also kind enough to film a short video for BBD.
“It’s nearby,” Ellie said. “This is my third time [donating]. We want to save lives.”
Amen to that.
All 50 appointments showed up, and this blood drive and two others held Tuesday had collection rates greater than 100 percent, Account Manager Ralph Groves said. That made Director, Donor Services Nicole Pineault happy.
According to Calendar Specialist Jamie Serrano’s daily report, BBD Mobiles had a 108% efficiency on Tuesday, August 29.
Nicole noted that the Wednesday, August 39 blood drive at Dogfish Head looked even better with 58 appointments. Suffice it to say that despite the success of Dogfish Head’s blood drives, we are not out of the woods just yet. We need to keep having success like this, and we need to somehow bring more donors into the donor centers, which have lagged behind.
