FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Blood Center Thanks Local Communities

MAY 01, 2004, SEATTLE — Puget Sound Blood Center hosted a “Community Service Recognition” luncheon for blood drive organizers and volunteers on Tuesday, April 30, at the Skagit Valley Casino Resort.

“This event celebrates the many ways that donors and volunteers support patients, and consequently, help their own communities,” said Maria Elena Geyer, the Blood Center’s director of donor and volunteer resources.

More than 100 individuals and groups represented Skagit, Whatcom, Island and San Juan counties at the luncheon. Last year, volunteers in those four counties logged more that 1,800 hours helping with 340 mobile blood drives there. More than 120 different donor groups worked on the Blood Center’s behalf to register 13,000 blood donors – about 10 percent of all donations collected by Blood Center mobile units.

In addition, area volunteers put in nearly 4,000 hours at the Blood Center’s Bellingham donation site, which since July 1, 2001, has registered 7,707 blood donors. The latter number represents a significant increase over that for the same period the previous year. More donors are called for in recent projections.

Dr. D. Michael Strong, Blood Center executive vice president and operations director, talked about the importance of volunteer and donor groups and how they help the Blood Center meet the challenges of successfully managing the community blood supply.

Also, Blood Center staff used words and a brief video to honor the memory of Leah Humphrey, who died last month at age 88. A longtime area resident who last resided at the Country Meadows Retirement Community in Sedro Woolley, Humphrey was one of the small number of donors who have given more than 100 units of blood. She had donated 117.

For more information about Puget Sound Blood Center, visit www.psbc.org.

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