Saturday, 14Aug10, St Petersburg, FL, FBS Multigallon Donor Event
Blood fact: “How long most donated red blood cells can be stored? 42 days!”
Incredible! Another amazing day at a blood center! This time it was at the Florida Blood Services center at St. Petersburg, FL.
Today they sponsored an event entitled: The Multi-Gallon Donor Event … where everyone invited today has donated a minimum of 20 GALLONS of blood … and … the most blood contributed was 114 GALLONS!
I was invited to speak and it gave me an opportunity to be in the same room with 150 blood donors who are truly GIANTS in this field.
They were amazing people and were most welcoming to all the speakers.
I also had the opportunity to once again with Rodney Ford and his wife Syrita … Rodney recently donated his kidney to Syrita who was suffering from kidney failure and it turned out to be that his kidney was a perfect match!
I rode across America with Rodney in the Five Points of Life ride back in 1997.
I also had the opportunity to share the podium with Bob Weiss … a recent winner of the LF award as was Rodney Ford … so it was a completely positive day with lots of positive memories … culminating with a dinner with old friends at FBS such as J.B., Jackie, Gene, etc. I wanted to say “thank you” to Don D(CEO) and his awesome staff for the incredible hospitality and for putting on such a successful event … giving me the opportunity to thank so many donors who are “giants” in donations. I even had the chance to go to the LAB and thank several of the components staff, courier, and distribution people … it was a very rewarding day for me!restored and programs installed after it crashed! It seems that everything is back together … however … all the data was lost in the process … pictures, etc. Luckily I had uploaded most of the pictures on Facebook … WHEW!
Well, I’m pretty tired tonight … and tomorrow I’m heading up to Tallahassee, FL, with a couple of stops to visit relatives.
Talk to you later