Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
With about an hour of time — much of it spent reclining, sipping a drink, and eating a snack — each of us has the power to save (get this) up to three human lives.
And yet the American Red Cross says only 3% of us Americans donate blood in a typical year.
Prior to last month, I was among the 97% who had not donated — well, at least not in a very long time.
After my last two tries were failed attempts — once in 2001 and again in 2009 — I had decided that donating blood was something I wasn’t cut out to do. I hadn’t given it much thought since then.
But once a month, I receive a calendar from Vitalant, the organization that coordinates blood drives all over our region. We include those blood drives in the events calendar each week for this newspaper.
It’s a rare week when there’s not at least one local site available for us to roll up sleeves and give this vital fluid.
If you follow the news, you may have also heard that our nation’s blood supply dipped critically low over the winter holidays, and the American Red Cross announced in January that the number of people donating blood has dropped 40% over the past 20 years.
A few other interesting facts, courtesy of the American Red Cross:
Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood.
The average need is three units; a single car accident victim can need as many as 100 units. A unit is about a pint, or what is extracted in a typical donation.
While researchers continue to strive to make artificial blood, so far this precious and perishable product only has one source: volunteer donors.
Pushed into action by that reminder, I signed up for a slot in a drive held in Portales in January.
The room was bustling when I arrived, with an efficient crew from Vitalant taking health histories, preparing donors for blood draws, and monitoring those already “hooked up.”
Donors who were already finished were selecting snacks and drinks from a nearby table and sticking around a few minutes to make sure all was well.
I expressed my concerns to the staff about my long ago failed attempts, but was met with encouragement that it was well worth trying again.
They were right.
The technician who worked with me hit a good vein on the first stick and the donation went quickly and easily.
It was clear from nearby conversations that there were several “regulars” in the donation chairs that day. (Whole blood may be donated every 56 days, I learned, or up to six times a year.)
My technician told me that one of her favorite stories is of a donor in another community who had herself needed 50 units of blood during a treacherous birth experience.
Determined to “repay” all of those units, that mom has — in the years since — given blood more than 40 times and is still a regular.
I’ve never needed blood myself, thank goodness, but have certainly watched plenty of units of that life-sustaining fluid drip into the arms of people I love.
If you haven’t given yet … or in a while, please give it a second thought.
You can find all you need to know at
where you may learn more about how the process works, view the regularly updated calendar of blood drives near us, and schedule a blood draw.
Not computer savvy? No worries. Call 877-258-4825 to learn more or to schedule an appointment.
They call it “red gold” for a reason. It’s a gift beyond price.
Betty Williamson is determined to become a regular. Reach her at:
