This September, the Ross Medical Education Center Kalamazoo, Michigan campus hosted Michigan Blood for a blood drive. Cynthia Stannard, Michigan Blood Donor Recruitment Representative, wrote a kind note thanking the Kalamazoo team after their drive, saying, “Thank you for hosting the blood drive. We do appreciate what we collected as your donations saved 24 lives. Please pass along my thanks to everyone who participated. We truly appreciate your support of Michigan Blood.”
The campus originally had 29 volunteers sign up to donate blood between staff and students. On the big day, thanks to the generosity of those volunteers, they were able to successfully donate enough blood to potentially save 24 lives right in their own state of Michigan. As a reward for the campus for their hard work donating blood, one student who owns a taco food truck brought their truck to the campus to serve fresh tacos for donors!
The Ross Kalamazoo Campus Director Dee Loucks said, “this was my first time donating blood, I was afraid after seeing the size of the bag used to collect blood, but the staff from Michigan Blood was very accommodating and helped me get through it! Everyone at the campus was very appreciative for their help in making the drive go as smoothly as possible.”
According to their website, Michigan Blood was founded in 1955, and continues to be a fast growing, independent, non-profit blood bank with their headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They are the primary provider of blood products and services for more than 60 hospitals throughout Michigan and is an established leader in quality and service. Michigan Blood collects more than 126,000 units of blood each year at eight permanent donation sites and more than 3,600 mobile blood drives in 59 counties statewide.
This was the first time the campus was able to work with Michigan Blood, but definitely will not be the last! They were very impressed by the professionalism, efficiency, and compassion of the Michigan Blood staff. The campus now hopes to make blood drives a recurring event throughout the year going forward, and they hope to start bringing in donors from the community around the campus to donate as well.