Ramblings of a Bunch of Otherwise Random People

The good news is, even though there were only 11 donors today (up from last week!) the out-of-house blood drives are booming. So, people are participating, just not when we are. Today's donors were very talkative. One man was explaining to a woman how to choose drives to get the "good" snacks in the aftercare, and Pure Soul and I talked about books with a man who used to deliver Mountain Dew. Someone joking round asked if we had any "spurters" yet, and volunteered when we said we hadn't. We're not allowed to talk about donations gone bad, but that apparently doesn't stop the donors themselves. When there were actually people in the center, the atmosphere was one of the most jovial I've witnessed so far.

Red Blood Cells: They're Hemoglobin-y!

Another terribly slow day. We joked with the Pepsi man about the fact that he was drinking Coke, but otherwise only had ten donors. Eleven, if you count the woman who practically jogged to the coat rack, bypassed the canteen completely, and hustled out the door. That was a bit of a double-take. I was also referred to as a "warden." Needless to say, most donors don't actually stay the recommended fifteen minutes.

I got out 20 minutes early today. Pure Soul was sick, but it didn't matter. Only eight people came in since noon, including the time I was there. From the sounds of it, the center in general is waaaaay over their monthly estimates for donations, though, so in general things are going well.

Mixed Views

After two weeks, I am back at the Blood Center. There is not much else to say, except I have all my hours, I love working with the people who come in, and we are out of pretzels. It is nice to see how many people come in every eight weeks, though I did overhear a part of a conversation that seemed like the man speaking wanted to commercialize the blood bank: something about paying the "regulars" and only having a drive when there is a shortage, hopefully leading to less waste. I can't say I agree. For many people, giving blood is a way to give back to the community, it always seems to be in tight supply, and frankly, if there was a shortage severe enough to warrant a blood drive, it would be too late. Blood is processed pretty quickly, but not fast enough for someone in desperate need of a transfusion to wait for one "hot off the press". Better to have excess - giving blood rarely has long-term negative effects for the donor, and for those for whom that is the case, they're probably not eligible to give blood in the first place.

Happy Talkin'....

It was a very chatty crew today. Not that I'm complaining; I got to see some people I hadn't talked to in a while. There were actually a nice number of donations today: about thirty. The weather is starting to get nicer, so maybe that has something to do with it. (And even though I missed last week, I am very close to my hours requirement.)

Checkpoint!

Apparently this is our two-month mark at the Blood Center. We have started seeing people from when we started. We found that amusing. It added a certain level of permanency, actually, because it proved that some people really do donate every eight weeks. Random note: One of the donors is a Protestant pastor. She is going to be taking a sabbatical for two months in Israel, where she has wanted to go since her time in the seminary. Other than that, it was a very quiet day. We barely had to start using a second sign-in sheet.

Snow Day for Everyone

I forgot to blog last week, which is a shame, because the phlebotomist from Grand Rapids was there. He explained to our middle school history teacher and her daughter how platelet donation works. I know I would mess up if I tried to explain it in too much detail, so I'll settle for saying that it involves centrifugal force. It was a very cool "teachable moment".

Today, meanwhile, the snow won. Our school closed for tomorrow, basically at lunch, out of fear for the pending blizzard. The volunteer coordinator didn't want us to show up to volunteer today, but she wasn't able to get a hold of us before we got there. Basically, we sat around for half an hour then went home; only eight people had shown up since noon, as is. I am typing this forty minutes before I would normally be done, and I have to admit I'm glad for the decision - visibility is awful.