Last week, we began our celebration of National Blood Donor Month with federal, state and New Castle County officials, and this week we took the celebration to the City of Wilmington Government.
The periodic City of Wilmington Blood Drive was held Thursday, January 11 where municipal workers and others from downtown Wilmington donated blood.
The city donors liked this year’s National Blood Donor Month concept of asking people to donate once per season in order to avoid future shortages in the local blood supply.
John Drysdale, who works at the federal court building, had not donated in a while.
“I’ve seen the truck out here a few times, but I could never get out of my shift,” John said. “I saw it today and said, let me go out there. I got a decent shift today.
“I’m all about it,” he added. “When I was 19 years old, I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A guy stepped on a mine, and he lost his legs. He needed blood, and they asked for anyone with A positive blood to step up. I said, yeah, I’ll do it. Ever since then, I’ve been an advocate. I got away from it for a little but, but you you’ve got to do it.”
John Hawley was also among the donors. He works in the city.
“I’m O positive, and your phone banks are pretty relentless,” John said.
He likes the idea of asking people to donate four times per year.
“When there’s a drive right here, it’s convenient,” John said. “If they came here four times per year, I’ll do it.”
Fellow whole blood donors Stephanie Mergler and Donna Kellam agreed with the concept of asking everyone to chip in and help avoid blood shortages.
“I donate every time you’re here,” Donna said. “It’s an easy thing to do; you replenish it.”
“I work in the City/County Building and I donate frequently,” Stephanie said. “I used to donate every two months, I started to have some iron deficiencies. So, now I do every four months.”
