
Blood Drives
St. Peter’s provides space for a Red Cross Blood Drive and solicits donors by phone, email, and via Red Cross website. Donors come from the parish and the wider community. We hope to collect about 100 units of blood, thus helping about 300 patients in the Delaware Valley area. For several years, we have offered a “Give a Pint, Get a Pint” arrangement in which local merchants provide their “pints” as a thank you to our donors. Past drives have offered coupons for a pint of water ice, soup, or beer.
Volunteers are needed with a variety of skills: to phone prospective donors; to process donors who sign up on the Red Cross website; to send postcards to remind donors who have made appointments; to be on site the day of the drive; to provide lunch for these (approximately 6) volunteers; to come up with ideas and contact merchants for thank-you pints; to advertise; and mostly to want to provide a life-saving gift to our neighbors.
Every 2 seconds someone in the United States needs blood, but only 3% of the population are blood donors. YOU can play a critical role in the treatment of accident and burn victims, patience with leukemia, cancer and sickle cell or those undergoing heart surgery and organ transplants. One blood donation can help up to three patients. The process takes about an hour. You need to be in generally good health and weigh at least 110 lb. (More details at www.redcrossblood.org)