Residents donate blood on holiday

STAFFORD — Eighty-four people came out to donate blood in the Stafford Marketplace shopping plaza on Labor Day. Together, their donation equaled 71 collected units of blood, and will help numerous people in need.

Monday’s blood drive with Inova Blood Donor Services was held in cooperation with Maggie Moo’s ice cream parlor, which operates in Stafford Marketplace.

The blood drive was held in the parking lot adjacent to the ice cream store.

Inova Blood Donor Services brought two buses, or bloodmobiles — each large enough to comfortably fit several patients inside, along with several workers drawing blood.

Maggie Moo’s gave away “a pint for a pint” — that is, a pint of ice cream to the first 75 customers who donated a pint of blood to the cause. After that, remaining customers were to receive free ice cream cones.

The gas station bp also gave away $10 gas cards to sponsor the event, held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Donna Onwona, senior account manager for Inova Blood Donor Services, said they expected about as many people as they received at the drive. The mobile
blood units are out in the community 365 days per year, she said, and will be back in Stafford Marketplace on Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for those who’d like to donate blood.

The buses typically go to just one stop in a day and stay all day, noted Diana Garcia, of Inova Blood Donor Services.

Donors can give blood every 56 days, added Onwona, noting that many times, when people start to give blood regularly, it stems from an experience where they’ve either needed blood or seen a family member or friend go through an experience where they’ve needed blood after being hospitalized.

Onwona said that when a medical incident happened with her husband, she came to see that the need for people to donate blood regularly is real. In fact, Onwona said that’s how she came to eventually work with Inova Blood Donor Services.

Inside one of the buses on Monday, Emil Kamar, team leader of Inova Blood Donor Services, said that there is always a blood shortage.
“It’s that never-ending game of catch up,” he said.

Kamar said that the bloodmobiles were out on Labor Day weekend because holidays are typically accident-prone.

Giving blood can save three lives every time it’s done, said Kamar, who collected blood from Stafford resident Aaron Sauter and other donors on Monday.
Sauter, a regular blood donor and a teacher at Triangle Elementary School in Prince William County, said that he remains on Inova Blood Donor Service’s e-mail list and is informed whenever there is a local blood drive.

Sauter said he thinks it’s “cool” that once a donor gives blood, he or she is later thanked by mail and notified that the donated blood has helped a particular person or people. Although those who are helped are not identified, just knowing you’ve helped someone through donating is nice, Sauter added.
Stafford resident Angee Seldon and her son Cedric Seldon, 11, have been on the receiving end of blood services in the past.

When Cedric was three years old, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He needed multiple blood transfusions, said his mother, who never realized there was such a blood shortage.

“He was so critically low,” she said of her son. “I always thanked God someone had donated. He took bag after bag [of blood.] It’s always been important to me to do what I can.”

Angee Seldon now donates blood on a regular basis. She’s also held blood drives.

“I go as often as I can. I’d give more if I could,” she said.

According to Inova Blood Services, there is an immediate need for most blood types.

Although 60 percent of the population is eligible to donate, less than 5 percent actually donates.

Seldon said that her son has been through chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant, but is doing well. He won’t be considered “cured” until he hits the five-year mark but all is well, his mother said.

Cedric, whose photo is one of several of children on one of the bloodmobiles, just started his first day of middle school and is doing great, his mother said.

Still, she remembers what it was like when her child was struggling and empathizes with others.

“I’ve been there. I’ve sat in the office when for other kids, there was no blood for them — or there was a shortage,” she said.

According to Inova Blood Donor Services, more than 200 blood and platelet donations are needed every day, year-round, by patients at the 15 hospitals the facility serves.

To schedule an appointment to donate blood or for more information, call (866) BloodSaves (866-256-6372). To sponsor
a blood drive, request a blood donation appointment online or to find area blood drives, visit: http://www.inova.org/blood_donor/.