The St. Mary’s Regional Blood Center lives up to its title. As the regional blood center, it is the primary provider of transfusable and non-transfusable blood products in the Colorado Western Slope and in parts of eastern Utah. The center provides life-saving blood products to hospitals and medical centers in Grand Junction, Fruita, Delta, Rifle, Montrose, Glenwood Springs, Meeker, Moab, Telluride, Aspen, Rangely and occasionally Denver as needed. St. Mary’s has some tall orders to fill, and there is rarely, if ever, a surplus of blood products. The center is always looking for altruistic individuals to donate their time and blood.
Blood donation is not all needles and cookies, though. (For those of you who have never donated blood before, you get free cookies, and it’s not a bad deal). It is a serious life-saving business. Who is doing all this life-saving? Well you, of course, in partnership with the wonderful staff at the St. Mary’s Regional Blood Center. By just taking 15 to 30 minutes out of your day to donate a single pint of blood, you can be responsible for saving as many as three lives.
Saving lives through blood donation may not be as glamorous as flying into a war zone in an iron suit and single-handedly rescuing all the hostages while not receiving a single scratch, but the means do serve some very real ends. You can thank Marvel Comics and Hollywood for the unrealistic expectations for saving lives.
“Donated blood is transfused to newborns, postpartum mothers, trauma, surgical and cancer patients,” Danielle Martin, one of two Donor Recruiters for the St. Mary’s Regional Blood Center, said. Blood can mean the difference between life and death for many ill people.
“As many as three lives can be saved by one donation,” Sherri Burns, another Donor Recruiter for the St. Mary’s Regional Blood Center, said. Burns continued on the importance of donation. “We are unable to manufacture transfusable blood products. The products have to be derived from human donors.” Blood is a very scarce and important resource in the medical community.
“Five percent of the population are eligible to donate, and only three percent actually do donate. If everyone eligible donated there would never be a blood shortage,” Burns said. The sad reality is that often there are blood shortages. One pint may save three lives, but there are always more patients filling the queue and awaiting blood transfusions.
When asked, “Why donate?” Martin said, “I think donation is one of the easiest ways to have a tremendous positive impact on community.” Donating blood is one of the easiest ways to provide a valuable resource for both your and other outlying communities. It costs the donor virtually nothing, other than a very temporary and safe reduction in blood volume.
Blood donation doesn’t always have to be completely altruistic. Sometimes you can have your cookies and eat them too, in a manner of speaking. The center will often provide incentives for donation outside the standard cookies and juice. Free ice cream, pie, and movie ticket day are some of the most successful ways of increasing foot traffic at the blood center and helps incentivize donors to keep the blood supply consistent.
On Wednesday, March 1, St. Mary’s Regional Blood Center will be doing a special promotion in partnership with Powderhorn. All donors will receive a buy-one-get-one lift ticket to the local ski resort.
This May, the St. Mary’s Regional Blood Center will be running its annual Heroes Behind the Badge event. The campaign pits the local police and fire departments against each other in a friendly donating competition, and money from the event is donated to charity. The community is always invited to come meet the brave first responders and contribute.
I was once invited to donate blood in college on a very impromptu date, and the needle freak that invited me along would later become the love of my life and my wife. I was showing her I could brave a needle a poke in the arm, and less blood in the body equals a cheaper date at the bars. However, soon to be a father, I feel as if I must say: if you are going to donate and drink, please do so responsibly. Have some fun and wear the traditional cotton and wrap on your arm as a badge of honor and spread the word. Donate a pint, save some lives and treat yourself to a pint…of beer, not blood.
By reading this article, I hope I have inspired just a handful of you to go out and donate some blood. Perhaps it was the idea of providing a much-needed service to save some lives that convinced you, or maybe it was the free cookies and pie. Perhaps it was the buy one get one free lift ticket for Powderhorn on March 1, or maybe you just needed a unique place to take a special someone on a very cheap date. Either way, I hope I have enlightened you on the critical importance of donation, and I challenge you to step up.
The center is in the Advanced Medicine Pavilion at 750 Wellington Ave. It is open Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. If you can’t make it there, look out for the blood drives on Colorado Mesa University campus March 1, April 4 and May 4.
