Red Cross Month honors volunteers

The month of March marks Red Cross Month across the nation, and the Red Cross is honoring the growing number of people across generations who are stepping forward to support their communities when help can’t wait.
Pam Jones serves as the Red Cross Bloodmobile coordinator in Red Oak. Her volunteering journey with the Red Cross started all the way back in 2009, after retiring from the Griswold School District, where she taught physical education for 37 years.  
“A former student of mine, Amy Allen, she was in charge of it then. She lives in Essex with her husband, Todd. She asked me to volunteer, and I was kind of the assistant, of sorts. After her kids got into high school, she wanted to give up being the coordinator, so I just took it over. I’ve been doing it probably 15 years or so,” Jones said.
For many years, they had a distribution list and would send postcards to people to notify them of upcoming bloodmobiles, but Jones found a way to streamline the process.
“My distribution list has around 200 people on it and some of them hadn’t given for a long time. So rather than individually fill out 200 postcards ahead of every bloodmobile, I started compiling the email addresses of the donors so they could be emailed ahead of the scheduled donor days. For those on the list that preferred a text notification over an email, I marked them down to be notified by text. It helps increase the likelihood of it being noticed, and allows me to send out notifications a couple of weeks before a scheduled drive, and then a reminder near or on the day,” advised Jones. “I’ve also got a number of them on a list so I’m the only one they get a notification from, rather than getting notifications from me and the Red Cross directly, as that can be overwhelming to some.”
While there have been some hiccups getting there, Jones said they’ve managed to revamp things to allow for more walk-ins.
“There were charge nurses that were happy to take walk-ins, and then there were those that weren’t. I advocated for walk-ions because when you’re in the city, people have set hours, they know when they can give blood. I said, we have many farmers, we have people that might be 15 or 30 minutes late because something happened on the farm or at work that prevented them from leaving on time to make a scheduled appointment time. If we had a full schedule of regulars, that would be one thing, but while we do have a number of donors our bloodmobile schedule is never completely full, so we’ve taken care of any no walk-in issues.”
As of late, there’s been a push for donors to make an appointment to donate, though Jones said it’s not a requirement.
“If you’re going to donate blood, we like it if you to make an appointment but it’s not an absolute. If you do plan to register for an appointment you can do so online through our online schedule. When they make an appointment, I go online and book it on my records. I’ve gotten familiar with the times my regulars donate, but if you can’t schedule an appointment, there’s usually wiggle room for walk-ins, in the afternoon, especially, and we can get you in. They are welcome to call me the day of the drive and I can guide them on the best time to do a walk-in, otherwise, if they just come to the location, we will get them in if we have space, or get them a time to come back if we can’t,” stated Jones.
And while the drive does follow an appointment schedule, Jones urged donors that if they’re running a little late, don’t feel they’ve missed the opportunity.
“I usually tell people if something comes up, give us a call, and if there’s room, we can get you in later. We know sometimes people get tied up at work or on the farm. After going through this so many times, we know that it’s a rural area, and this happens way more than it does in the city. Unless we’re totally booked, people who are late to an appointment are welcome to come later,”
In the spirit of volunteerism, Jones highlighted the multiple places in the community that have given space to hold the blood drives.
“We initially started the drives at the Montgomery County Family YMCA, and then they got so many programs going that there really wasn’t room for us to hold the drives, so we moved to the Bethlehem Lutheran Church for a time before doing some of the drives at Faith Community Church. It was a great place, but with so many of our donors being elderly, the gravel drives could be treacherous. Around that time, Bethlehem Lutheran had a change in pastor and we ended up moving bloodmobiles back there and have been there ever since. There’s no steps so it’s easy for our donors to navigate. Even then, we’ve had other churches and places offer space for the drives, so I’ve never been worried that we wouldn’t have a place to hold them. Without these places working with us, it would be hard to coordinate a dedicated blood drive,” advised Jones.
The Montgomery County Red Cross bloodmobile team is all made up of volunteers. In addition to Jones who mans the appointment table, Amy Allen handles the check-ins, and Amy’s sister in law, Maurine Allen, runs the canteen. There are also a couple of volunteers in the wings should something prevent one of them from being at a drive. Jones said anyone who’s interested in serving as a volunteer on the day of the drives is welcome to do so, and only needs to contact Jones.
While many drives offer cookies and juice as staples, Jones said that Maurine Allen puts together a full meal in the canteen for donors, especially those taking time out of their work to donate.
“I know in most places they bring snack items like granola bars, as well as little juice cups and water, but we make a whole meal, whether it’s soup or Sloppy Joe’s or shredded beef sandwiches, chips, and always a vegetable tray. A lot of people depend on that for their lunch, or if they donate late enough, for their supper, so they can eat here before they go back to work or they’re welcome to take the food back to their workplace with them and eat it there.”
For a first time donor, they can expect the donation process to take at the most an hour, but usually it’s 45 minutes or less. The actual time of donating the blood is around eight minutes. The Red Cross is now offering Rapid Pass, which allows donors to skip answering questions prior to donating. They simply need to print off the paper that shows they completed the 30 pre-screening questions, or show it to the volunteers on their phones. You can visit redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/eligibility-requirements.html to read up on minimum age limits to donate, height, weight, the frequency you can donate, and other eligibility requirements. Jones said they make first time donors as comfortable as possible.
“When I know the person is a first time donor, when I see they’re getting ready to give blood, I will go over there with them and talk to them, because I remember my first time, I was so nervous, so I’ll just talk to them about different things, and a lot of the times that really helps in getting them through the process and keeps them from overthinking. Sometimes, people pass out. I passed out the first time I donated blood, so it happens, and it’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Jones explained. “Even our regular donors, sometimes they have one of those days and they end up a bit lightheaded after donating.”
Jones said that while they have a solid group of donors, they would welcome the opportunity for more.
“I urge them to just come out and try it. We have a goal of 50 people every drive, and we can usually hit that, but I would be thrilled if we could get that number up to 75 or even 100. There are communities much smaller than us that are getting an average of 50 donors, and if we could get more people donating that further benefits those than need life-saving blood. Those that donate also get something besides a meal. To boost donations, the Red Cross is offering swag, like free t-shirts, or gift cards.  They really want to get some incentives out there for people to donate,” Jones stated.
Jones also shared what she finds the most rewarding about being the Red Oak coordinator for the Red Cross.
“What stands out the most is all of the new people I have met. I’ve made a lot of good friends, including Connie Bishop. When her daughter, Tina, was diagnosed with Leukemia, we had a blood drive in her honor, and Connie is adamant about giving blood. She’s gotten a variety of donor pins and she’s got them on felt and framed. Being the Red Cross coordinator here has allowed me to meet people like Connie that I never would have probably met otherwise,” commented Jones. “I’m not only passionate about being coordinator, I’m also passionate about giving blood myself. I had a hip replacement surgery and couldn’t donate blood for back to back bloodmobiles, and it killed me not being able to do so.”
To learn more about the Red Cross or get on the email or phone list to be a donor, they can call Jones at 621-4705, or email her at pamdjones48@gmail.com.