BLOOD DONORS HONORED
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 -- 2:54 PM
They had given gallons of their own blood, so the American Red Cross figured the least they could do was buy them lunch.The Red Cross hosted a recognition lunch Tuesday at the American Legion here in Neillsville to honor some of their most loyal donors, including one man who had given 22 gallons in his life.
The guest speaker was Dr. John Weiss, a retired General with the Army Reserve and current Senior Medical Director with the Red Cross' Badger Hawkeye Region. He gave a "genuine thank you" to those had given blood and noted experts still hadn't found a synthetic alternative to blood.
"Today was our way to say thank you to the people that support us every time we're here in Neillsville drawing blood. We have some really high gallon donors and we just want to say thank you," explained the Red Cross' Bonita Leitza.
She says they've always had great success here.
"Neillsville runs about five major blood drives a year, plus some smaller ones in between. We want to encourage people that are not donors to come in and take advantage of this. We really need you."
In 2001, the most recent year data were available, U.S. hospitals transfused nearly 14 million units of whole blood and red blood cells to 4.9 million patients.
The next Red Cross blood drive in Neillsville will be Monday, October 22 at the American Legion.from 11:30 to 6 p.m.
On The Web:
[url=http://www.givelife.org]Red Cross[/url]
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