Donating Blood

In a number of ways, the place I work makes it easy to do good works.
As an example, regular blood drives are held on campus.

This means the good folks from Carter Blood Care show up on a particular day, and you can just wander over there and give blood.  (Once you pass "inspection," of course.)

This is a time of year when blood donation centers have a smaller supply (traveling for the holidays makes it harder to go and donate), but there is also a bigger need for blood and blood products (most horribly because there are more car wrecks - due to bad driving conditions, or the use of awareness-altering substances such as alcohol, or various combinations of other unfortunate events).  So, here's an idea for a holiday season good work: donate blood.  For a pretty small time investment - you could be in and out in under an hour! - you could give a gift that literally saves a life.

If a blood donation center isn't conveniently located for you / you're feeling ambitious, you might be able to organize a blood drive at your school / place of employment / church / community center.  I get the impression this isn't too hard to do, but haven't tried it myself.  If you're in DFW and want to talk to Carter about organizing a blood drive, start here.
The Red Cross is another popular place to donate blood.

Have you organized a drive before?  Tell us about that in the comments.

Have you donated blood?  Was it satisfying?
Did you get a cookie?

I was once a very regular blood donor - I've got the scars on my median cubital vein to prove it!  Then I traveled to Tanzania for my dissertation work.  Twice.  And took anti-malarial drugs for several months.  I had to abstain from donation for a couple years.  I enjoyed donating again once I was eligible.

Then I was pregnant.  No one thinks you should donate blood if you're pregnant.  You're already pretty metabolically stressed, to be fair.

But now I'm neither at risk for Malaria nor pregnant, so earlier this month, I got to donate blood again!  I'm up to a few pints with Carter, and had reached the gallon mark at Memorial Blood Center in Minneapolis when I lived there.  I was pretty proud of that; and bummed that my previous "record" couldn't follow me when I moved.  I'll have to keep my own tally now, I suppose.

On another note - there are a number of things that make you ineligible to donate blood: having certain diseases, taking certain medications, being less than 110 pounds (the weight is absolutely not a problem for me)... that sort of thing.  Travel to certain areas can also make you ineligible (my number one reason for being rejected as a blood donor).  Also, if you are a man, having sex with another man makes you ineligible. Regardless of the context or anything else.  Because apparently heterosexual sex never puts you at risk for HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases?  (Sarcasm alert.)
I do take issue with that.
But, it used to be the case that you had to wait a year after a piercing or tattoo to donate, and now it's OK after several weeks, as long as you promise that you went to a legit tattoo parlor that uses sterile, one-time use needles.  So I'm hopeful that blood donation centers will be able to accept more donors in future.  We certainly need them.

I still donate blood, because gay men might still need blood products.

If needles give you the heebie-jeebies (or you can't donate for some other reason, like being anemic) but you really want to get involved with this worthy cause, most blood donation centers need plenty of volunteers (call to set up / remind folks about their appointments, stock the donor canteen...), or you could organize a blood drive and let people who don't mind needles get poked.

Lifetime blood donations by TBV:
1 gallon, 3 pints

Calendar Drive!

CALENDAR DRIVE

Participating in a supply drive of some kind is a way you can do good works with a pretty small time investment.  This might be really simple: obtain some extra non-perishable food and bring it to your church's food pantry; save pop tops for the Ronald McDonald House collection box at work, drop off your old eyeglasses at the optometrist.
You could be a little more ambitious and organize a supply drive.

I was already in touch with an organization that regularly needs donations of clothing, household goods, food, toiletries, furniture... all sorts of daily living items: Refugee Services of Texas.  Refugee Services of Texas is a non-profit organization that helps families settle into a new life in the United States.  Refugees are people who have left their home countries because of persecution; they often arrive in the US with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
I had literature from RST about the kinds of items they nearly always need (from rice to school uniforms), and for some reason wall calendars jumped out.

Yes, CALENDARS.

Calendars are especially useful tools for newly arrived families learning all about the culture and schedules of the United States and their employers.

Many of us receive calendars at this time of year that we neither need, want, nor use.  My family usually gets around 3 (free!) and at least 2 of them just go directly to the recycling bin.  I thought to myself: I'm going to mail those extra calendars to RST this year.  Warm fuzzy feeling!
Then I thought: how many of the people I know get calendars they aren't going to use?  Probably at least a few.  Maybe I can send RST several calendars.

I got in touch with one of the volunteer coordinators to see if they need calendars.  In addition to the many families RST is already coaching, they are expecting 300 new families in DFW in 2013.  So, yes.  They could use some calendars.

I made a little flyer, and I've been talking to people at work, at my dance studio, at choir rehearsal: let me have your unwanted 2013 wall calendars.

I don't think I'll accumulate 300 calendars.  But maybe I'll get a few dozen.

To blog or not to blog....

I debated about whether to create this blog.

Is it too much like bragging about all the "good things" I'm doing?  (Or appearing to do....)  Being recognized for it isn't the reason we engage in volunteerism, after all.  (Or it shouldn't be....)

Good works are a calling for me - the reason we lead our lives: to help others, support one another, and generally to leave the world better than when we found it.

So maybe I should just do some good works and not blog about it.

Then I also pondered conversations I've had that involve one or more of the following themes:
-That sounds great, but....
-I'd help if I could, but....
-I'm just one person, can I make a difference?
-My life is just too full.
-I don't have anything to give.

It occurred to me that at least some other people might be attempting to become more generous, to do good works on a tight schedule, and that maybe if we talk about it - if we support each other - if we brainstorm together - we can do more.
But avoiding bragging about these good works still seems like a good idea to me; so I'll be making this blog semi-anonymous.  I say "semi" because I assume the first readers will be people who already know me; but I do say "anonymous" because I think this topic and the results of the actions described are more important than my individual identity in this context.

It also occurred to me that if I'm so very busy, how can I possibly maintain a blog?
That's a really interesting question.  I hope to discover the answer along with you.