Havre Red Cross Blood Drive a success

Judy Vosen

Local Red Cross blood drive volunteer coordinator

Editor’s note: This version corrects the date of the next blood drive in Havre.

The recent Havre Community Red Cross Blood Drive held at St. Jude Parish Center on Monday, July 23rd, was a huge success. From 115 presenting donors, there were 102 Whole Blood and 11 Power Red units collected. Once the Whole Blood products are separated into different components (Red cells, Platelets, and Plasma) each collected unit totals three lifesaving products. For the Power Red units collected we get two products from each donation. After the Whole Blood is separated and Power Reds combined, the drive will provide 317 lifesaving products ready for hospitals Friday morning. This is something that everyone can be proud of and the Red Cross wishes to thank the generous donors.  

The Red Cross team arrives early on a Monday morning every other month, and remains in the area until Thursday evening. During that time an average of 300 units are collected from the Havre area out of 5 differrent blood drive sites. The communitty can be very proud of the altruism of it’s members!

This Red Cross Crew out of Great Falls covers a huge geographic area, reaching from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern border of Montana, and south from Sidney to Lewistown and the towns surrounding Great Falls itself. And all these smaller communities donate more blood than the rest of the more populous parts of the state combined. Kudos to rural Montana!

Thank you is given to the PEO Sisterhood of Havre for providing a selection of delicious sandwiches, and thank you to Stockman Bank for providing a variety of fresh baked cookies. And, as always, the Red Cross provided a selection of snacks, juices, and water for the donors. You may continue to look forward to and enjoy fresh sandwiches and cookies at future blood drives provided by other local service groups.

A very special thank you goes to all the donors who so selflessly gave of their time to provide the life-saving gift of blood for people they don’t even know and very likely will never meet. If you would like to join the ranks of these every day heroes, you may schedule an appointment at the next blood drive by calling 1-800-RedCross. Or you can go online to redcrossblood.org click on “Find a Drive”, and enter the sponsor code “havre”. You can download the Red Cross Blood Donor app to your smart phone or tablet to get an appointment and pre-register the day of donation to speed things up a bit at the blood drive. If you have never donated, there is also information on that site informing potential donors what they might expect when donating. Please be sure to bring in some form of State or Red Cross identification.

The next Havre Community Blood Drive is scheduled for Monday, September 16th, 2024 at St. Jude Parish Center. There are several other bloods drives that same week in the Havre area, so be sure to check the website or ask the representative you speak with should a different drive better suit your schedule. See you in September!