Blood Drive
The Knights of Columbus blood drives, held in conjunction with INOVA, are held at Harmony Hall at the Hamilton Safety Center, 39071 E. Colonial Highway, Hamilton. Parishioners’ involvement include blood donation, calling donors, assisting in registration, and providing baked goods for the drive.
Call 1-866-BLOODSAVES (1-866-256-6372) or contact Chuck Izzo at [email protected]. Watch for bulletin announcements for upcoming dates of blood drives.
This SFdS blood drive will be critical to replenishing the IBDS blood supply. Live the Gospel of Life. Make a lifesaving donation of blood for others at the blood drive.
St. Francis de Sales Blood Donor Program Anniversary Facts
The St. Francis de Sales Blood Donor Program (SFdS BDP) has achieved many significant milestones over the past 25 years. Since 1993, the number of drives scheduled and the units drawn continued to increase. In 1999, the second year at four drives per year, the draw averaged 51 units with registrations at nearly 60 persons. For this, INOVA awarded the SFdS program its prestigious 1999 Presidents Award at the 2000 Awards ceremony.
2000 brought an increase in drives per year to six with Msgr. Cassidy’s challenge, “We can do better”. In addition, a Palm Sunday drive was hosted to aid IBDS during a period of severe shortage in replacement blood supply.
The 2001 schedule included the October 11 2001 blood drive dedicated to the recovery after the horrible 9/11 attack. That drive resulted in a tremendous turn-out of 85 registrants who donated 75 units, both being the best to date at that time.
The tenth anniversary year of 2003 was celebrated with a couple of blood drive cancelling snow storms highlighting both the beginning and the end of the year. Only the December drive was made up the third weekend for a “five drive” year with 371 registrants and 333 units drawn. The ten year program totals were 2,389 registrants yielding 2,600 units of blood.
The SFdS BDP reached its 50th blood drive mark in February 2005 with the registrant total of 3,027 and units drawn total of 2,617.
Another major milestone was the achievement of 4,000 units of blood during the December 2009 blood drive. This marked the 500th gallon of blood drawn from SFdS blood donors.
2012 was the most productive year, marking the collection of another 800 units of blood (100 gallons) for a program total of 4,800 units with the February drive. The Captain Quin Memorial Blood Drive in April netted 97 registrants, the program best.
The Centennial Blood Drive on August 18 2013 marked the 100th drive in the program and capped the first generation of the program.
2014- 2018 usher in the next century of drives. The 2014 to 2018 drives to date have been completed with outstanding results, setting the stage for the 25th Anniversary Celebration on 23 September 2018.
