Some People Will Do Anything for a Bagel!
July 2, 2000

In addition to the free bagel: Researchers from the National Institutes of Health recently reported that donating blood may reduce your risk for heart disease--perhaps by as much as 86 percent. Apparently, two new studies indicate that blood donation lowers iron levels in the body. The same studies indicate that high levels of iron are linked to higher incidences of heart disease.


Fearless Leaders
The coordinators and helpers for this year's blood drive, from left, Rita, Jim, Charlene (AKA Charlie) and Becky Rose. Becky works at the Memorial Blood Bank, and has coordinated this event for St. Joan's for a number of years. When I tried to pin her down for a few questions, she was so busy moving that I couldn't catch her! 

The process is quite simple. First you fill in a form that asks for some basic information. 

  • Have you given platelets, blood, plasma here or anywhere else in the last eight weeks?

  • Do you weigh 120 pounds or over? (here it is good to weigh over 120 pounds!)


'Unknown Donor'

  • Have you taken aspirin or anything with aspirin in the last 2 days?

  • In the last three years, have you been outside the US or Canada?

  • Between 1980-1996, have you spent a total of six months or more in the United Kindgom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands)? 

You then have an interview with someone that asks you more questions, like:

  • Have you ever taken clotting factor concentrates for a bleeding problem, such as hemophilla?

  • Are you giving blood because you want to be tested for HIV or the AIDS virus?


Bagel Row
After filling in the form, and being interviewed, you must make sure that you have had breakfast. If you give blood without food, it is more likely that you will have problems, like fainting. the volunteers really don't want to pick you up off of the floor.

I overheard one man tell  a donor that "you would do anything for a bagel!" Hey, who ever said there wasn't such a thing as a free lunch?

After all of the questions, the food, the interview, the waiting in line, then you get hooked up. The process in the room of the vampires only takes five to ten minutes! The room had ten beds. At the time this picture was taken, at 8:30 AM, there were seven of them filled! Thank you all for getting her so early!

Then, there were also the people


Vampire Room

 that had the 'wrong' answers to the questions from the form, or the interviewer. For safety reasons, there must be some restrictions on those that donate.


Patty Brennan
If you were one of the unlucky ones that were unable to donate, you did receive a very nice sticker that said, "Be nice to me, I tried to donate blood today!"

Some of the reasons for rejection aren't that common. If you were in an area of the world that has malaria, or higher incidents of malaria, you could not donate.

Patty Brennan was just checking us out, trying to decide if she wanted to donate next year. I think we managed to convince her!

Thanks to Fr. Jim for promoting this during mass there was a rush after the 9:00 mass. Now, he did remind us twice, but the first time was at the beginning of the service. Seems like he thought a reminder before keys were in hand was a good idea! It must have worked, because there was quite a stampede in the hallway!

All in all, there were 99 people that signed up to donate, however, due to the above restrictions, only 84 were able to. And, we were told at the July 9th mass, some of the St. Joan's blood has already been used to help people! Way to Go!

Janice LaMere Janice La Mere is a self-professed (and sometimes publicly acknowledged) girl-geek. She does computer technical support and training, and is a writer, college student, mother of three and grandmother of two. She likes to read, learn, listen to music, walk with her dog (Lady Isabella Augusta, AKA Auggie Doggie) and watch old movies. She can be found on the Internet at www.janissima.com, or email to lamere@janissima.com.
Robert Brennan has been a member of SJA for about eight years. Took a "sabattical" from the Catholic church for many years before finding St Joan's. He and his wife, Patty, are members of the choir and went to Rome last year as a part of the Archdiocese Rome Choir. They sang in the Vatican during the first ecumenical service with Lutherans. He is enjoying being a photographer for the website.

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