Glencoe Community Blood Drive a success

o the Editor:
The second Glencoe Community Blood Drive of 2018 was held Wednesday, July 11, at the Glencoe City Center ballroom. The American Red Cross set our goal at 111 units; we fell short of the goal and collected 97 units. Because the ARC has such a shortage of blood available, they were still very pleased with the results. 97 units have the potential to help up to 291 patients.
Thank you to the 104 presenting donors who endured the road construction detours, extreme heat and humidity of the day to attend the drive. The ARC, our dedicated volunteer workers and the donors were very grateful for the air-conditioned location of the drive! The 104 number included 14 walk-ins for the day, who made up in part for the 21 no-shows (about 20 percent of our appointments). There were 15 deferrals, unable to donate at this drive.
More donors are taking advantage of the opportunity to use the RapidPass option to complete online their pre-donation reading and health history. We guesstimated that between 75-90 percent of the donors who arrived for the blood drive had used this option, which greatly shortened the wait time for the donors! There appeared to be no great time delays for the donors, which helped with the efficiency of the drive. Information about RapidPass can be found by logging on to redcrossblood.org/
rapidpass.
We are grateful to the Glencoe City Center Board and Dan Ehrke for allowing the ARC to use the air-conditioned City Center, and to the custodians for their hard work in set-up and take-down. THANKS also to Coborn’s, Security State Bank and The McLeod County Chronicle for supporting us with their products and services. Keebler Corporation continues their nationwide support of the American Red Cross with donations of Keebler products for the after-donation snacks and juices. We use the financial support from Thrivent Financial Action Team to cover the cost of the additional refreshments we serve to the donors after their donation, and food for the late-afternoon light meal served to the ARC team and volunteers. It is a long day for the ARC team; they arrive before noon and leave after 8:00 p.m.
I have neglected in the past to ever thank KDUZ/KARP for their public service announcements about the Glencoe blood drives! One donor specifically mentioned they had heard the info on the radio and decided to make an appointment and donate! Don’t ever doubt that people still listen to local radio!!
The last Glencoe Community Blood Drive of 2018 is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 14, from 1:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Glencoe City Center. We have many donors who have already pre-scheduled their November appointments. There are open timeslots so if you want to pre-set your November appointment, please call our Scheduling Coordinator Nelda Klaustermeier at 320-864-3475. At each blood drive, appointments have priority over walk-ins.
I pass forward to the donors, volunteers and businesses what Amber, the ARC Team Supervisor, stated in her end-of-day note: “Thank you for hosting such a great blood drive! I appreciate all the effort you put into it!”