Your turn: Everyone should be passionate about donating blood
Since becoming a regular blood donor at the age of 16, this passion has grown, and I want to share that passionwith as many people as possible.
I started my blood donor journey at the mobile blood drive at my high school and continued to give here and therethrough the end of my teen years. I knew that my blood went to our local hospitals and was being used to savelives, but I didn’t understand the gravity of the need until I went to college.
During my time at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, I became involved in Dance Marathon. Miracle Network Dance Marathon is a student-led, year-round philanthropic movement across the country to raise criticalfunds for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
After getting involved with my campus organization, I had the opportunity to work directly with the families ourmonetary donations were helping. I got to know our families, support them on their health journeys, and quicklygrew to learn how critical blood was to the various treatments the children were going through.
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I never realized how much their life-saving treatments depended on healthy people willing to take an hour out oftheir day to give blood; something that we all hope we will never need but rely on being there in the eventsomething happens to us or a loved one.
It became clear to me that blood is something our families needed just as much as the monetary funds we were raising.
Watching those kids fight for their lives inspired me to become a regular donor, every eight weeks, every 56 days, Iwould commit to donating blood.
Time has passed, and now I am a teacher in my late twenties, but that commitment I made in college is something Ihave held onto.
I have my donation schedule laid out in my calendar, I keep track of when I am eligible to donate, and it is something I genuinely look forward to every eight weeks.
Donating blood can also be a lot of fun.
I like to see how quick my donation is each time and collect the swag items the Rock River Valley Blood Center gives for every gallon of blood I donate. I have the five-gallon sticker on my window and my RRVBC mug is always a great conversation starter.
Most importantly, each time I give, I know that my blood is being used to treat people who rely on me to help savetheir life.
Most of the time, I don’t know these people. But I know that one day it could be my loved-one who needslife-saving blood, and I hope that someone else has taken the time to donate and potentially save their life.
I think everyone who is able should start with just one donation and feel what an impact it can make.
When you give, you are donating to children being treated for cancer, premature infants and children having heartsurgery, or someone who was critically injured in a car crash that needs a blood transfusion to live.
Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood, and we need to make sure there is enough available.
In 2023, the Rock River Valley Blood Center has the goal to add 7,000 new donors in honor of its 70th anniversary.
I encourage you to take this opportunity to reach outside of your comfort zone, bring a friend with you and committo donating blood this year.
As the only supplier of blood to 13 local hospitals, the RRVBC needs to see 800 donors a week to meet the demand.
Thousands of people in our local community are depending on us to donate the life-saving blood they need; we can't let them down.
Samantha Hacker has been donating blood for more than 10 years and has donated over five gallons of blood. She is a teacher at Winnebago Middle School. The Rock River Valley Blood Center serves hospitals across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin with a donor base that stretches across Winnebago, Boone and Stephenson counties among others.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Everyone should be passionate about donating blood
