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Celebrate World Blood Donor Day with TBC

Jun 7, 2019 | cBlog, Education, Events, News

Celebrate World Blood Donor Day with TBC

Be part of a world-wide movement of people donating blood on World Blood Donor Day! The Blood Connection (TBC) has donation centers and mobiles all over North or South Carolina to make sure you can take part!

Friday, June 14th is World Blood Donor Day 2019 and this year’s campaign recognizes the need for safe blood for all. TBC is joining organizations in the US and around the world to acknowledge the constant need and to celebrate blood donors who are committed to saving lives.

“We want our blood donors to feel as special they are, for saving lives every day through their generous blood donations,” said TBC President and CEO, Delisa English. “We also hope to inspire more people throughout the community to donate blood regularly, and often.”

Health is a human right; everyone in the world should have access to safe blood transfusions, whenever and wherever they need them. The need for blood products is universal, but access to safe blood and blood products varies greatly across and within countries. It starts with donating local.

Special events by region:

– Eastern North Carolina:

June 14th – Raleigh TBC Donation Center – 5925 Glenwood Avenue

Miss North Carolina, Laura Matrazzo, will be visiting the center from 2:30-4:30 p.m. and Miss Garner’s Outstanding Teen, Ashton Britt, will be there from 11a.m.-2 p.m. The community and media are welcome to attend and meet them.

– Upstate South Carolina:

June 14th & 15th – Spartanburg and Greenville Donation Centers

Join WSSL 100, for a country-lovin’ blood drive! They’ll have your favorite country tunes playing when you come donate with TBC. The simple act of donating blood will get you 2 tickets to hang with Locash, Russell Dickerson, Dylan Scott, and Rachel Wammack, and Joe Lasher at the Pickin’ in the Park concert in Spartanburg! We’ll also hook you up with a Country’s in My Blood t-shirt to show off that country pride.

– Western North Carolina:

June 27th – WLOS Station – 110 Technology Drive

To round out the month of June, TBC is also teaming up with WLOS ABC13 for the 32nd Annual Operation Blood Drive. Donors can visit six different locations around Asheville to take part in OBD. Donors will also receive a special OBD t-shirt.

Sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), World Blood Donor Day celebrations bring a precious opportunity to celebrate all blood donors on a local, national and global level as well as to commemorate the birthday anniversary of Karl Landsteiner, a Nobel Prize winner credited for distinguishing the main blood groups in 1900.

Blood transfusions help save millions of lives every year around the world. Here in the Western North Carolina area, they help local patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer with a higher quality of life. Blood also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care, as well as people with traumatic injuries and patients undergoing surgical procedures. But an adequate blood supply can only be assured through regular donations by voluntary blood donors.

Blood donors must be 16 years old with parental consent, or 17 years old or older to donate. All donors must have a photo ID.

Click DONATE NOW to find your nearest location! Thank you for saving lives in our community!

Honoring Our Fallen Soldiers

May 22, 2019 | cBlog, Events, Promotions

TBC Honors Our Community’s Fallen Soldiers

In recognition of Memorial Day, The Blood Connection is honored fallen soldiers with a commemorative 4-day blood drive. TBC remembers those selfless heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice to serve and protect this great nation. As an organization whose main mission is to save lives, TBC thanks those brave men and women for their service.

To honor the fallen and their families, The Blood Connection teamed up with the Wounded Warrior Project. For every center donor from May 24-27, TBC gave $10 to the BCA (Blood Centers of America) Special Forces Wounded Warriors Fund. The organization gives back to U.S. Special Forces injured warriors, caregivers, and family members, to raise money and awareness to those who are serving or who have served. Hundreds of people in our community sacrificed their time to make a blood donation in honor of fallen soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. Because of those donors, The Blood Connection gave more than $7,000 to the BCA Special Forces Wounded Warriors Fund! (This fund has no affiliation to the Wounded Warrior Project/Fund.)

Donors also dedicated these patriotic pinwheels to a loved one or fallen soldier. They stood proud in our centers’ lawns in rememberance. TBC is proud of this community. Thank you for showing your gratitude!

Quoted above is Kenneth Greene. He donates regularly with TBC in memory of his father, an army veteran. While the sacrifice of donating blood comes nowhere near to the sacrifice fallen soldiers have made, it’s a sincere action of an appreciative community. Not only does the blood donation help save local lives, the monetary donation goes towards a better life for a veteran. What better way to honor a life lost than with the act of saving one?

Each blood donation has the power to save up to three lives. Together as a community, help show these local heroes and their families that we support them too.

TBC blood donors have been getting quite the praise from other local blood donation centers for their dedication to honoring those who serve.

I wanted to take a moment of your time and publicly give “kudos” to The Blood Connection (TBC) for the terrific Memorial Day promotion they conducted. During the Memorial Day weekend, TBC invited blood and platelet donors to come and support / honor members of the military through blood donations. In return, TBC donated $10 to the BCA Special Forces Wounded Warrior Fund. This promotion proved to be very successful!

The Blood Connection recently presented a check for $7000 to the Fund!

I want to publicly thank Delisa English and her excellent staff at TBC for a terrific idea and for the incredible gift! This was a very successful promotion that resulted in a generous contribution that will go a long way to help some very worthwhile service personnel and their families.

The most recent request from the Care Coalition that we supported really encapsulates why the BCA Special Forces Wounded Warrior Fund was created…

There is a young sergeant who was injured on a parachute jump during a training exercise at Fort Bragg in N.C..

As if his injury wasn’t difficult enough for him and his family, his unborn daughter has been diagnosed with Trisomy 18 (also called “Edwards Syndrome”). She also has a heart defect that will require open heart surgery after birth.

This young soldier’s wife is seeing a specialist at a Children’s Hospital in the Midwest. This is where the baby will be born and the surgery performed. The baby will remain in the hospital for 8 weeks.

The wife is having complications from the pregnancy.

The father will be in training at Fort Bragg.

Trisomy 18 is a genetic disorder that often causes a combination of birth defects. These defects can include severe intellectual disabilities, as well as health problems involving any or all organs in the body. Unfortunately, most babies born with Trisomy 18 die by age 1. But a small percentage can survive beyond the first birthday.

This young family has exhausted their savings as a result of these issues.

This is an incredibly sad situation for this young family. But we are very pleased to be able to help them in a small way by assisting with some of their travel expenses.

If you ever wondered if the Fund helps individuals, now you know.

– David Allen, President & CEO of Mississippi Blood Services

When donors give local with The Blood Connection, it stays local. TBC is the primary blood provider for local hospitals, which means when anyone there needs blood, TBC supplies it. While trauma is the most obvious reason for blood usage, cancer patients are usually the number one recipients of blood products. Donations are also needed for burn victims, premature infants, surgeries, and those with blood disorders, to name a few. When community members share blood, healing happens, and families remain whole.

Blood donors must be healthy, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be 17 years old or 16 with written parental consent. Our centers are open Monday-Friday 7am-7pm and Saturday-Sunday 7am-5pm. Click here to make an appointment or to call a specific center.

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Featured Artist: Cindy Hammond

May 20, 2019 | Events, Featured Artist

Featured Artist: Cindy Hammond

My interest in Art began at an early age with my mother and grandmother crafting, knitting, sewing, and expressing their creativity in many ways. My interest in 2-D art began in high school and further developed in college as a Studio Arts major concentrating in Drawing and Design.

After graduation, I worked as a designer and then entered the field of graphics. Taking time out to raise my family, I didn’t re-ignite my love for Art until the early 2000’s admiring the works of many painters. First, working in watercolors, years later, I then moved to oils and acrylics. Today, I primarily work in oils and love the texture, color, and values achieved in the richly pigmented paints. I consider myself self taught in painting and continue to take workshops to further my techniques, skill, and knowledge of painting. I have worked with many seasoned artists throughout my journey. To name a few, Mary Segars, Jacki Newell, Alice Williams, Gary Bodner, Jeff Erikson, Mark Bettis, Leslie Saeta, and Sandra Roper. They all have inspired me in different ways and I feel fortunate to have studied with these exceptional artists.

I am a contemporary oil painter working in both experimental and representational themes. I create abstracts in an oil and cold wax medium lending itself to a freer form of art, focusing on, form, color, line, texture, markings, and movement. When I paint traditional oils, I like a loose brushstroke, creating soft edges, harmonious color, simplicity, and a painterly style. I like to work from photographs and use a limited palette to maintain harmony in the painting.

I hope you enjoy viewing my art as much as I enjoy creating it. All of the art are original pieces created in my studio located in Fountain Inn, SC at 301 Farmwood Drive, Fountain Inn, SC 29644.

I can be reached at 864-270-5063 and via email at clhammond@charter.net or cindyhammondfineart@gmail.com.

NC high school student honored for work with TBC

Apr 8, 2019 | cBlog, Events

Temoor Dard Writes Inspiring Letter Encouraging Blood Donation

A Panther Creek High School senior is hoping to bring back a life-saving tradition to the Wake County School System. Temoor Dard is a loyal blood drive host for The Blood Connection, a community blood center in Central and Eastern North Carolina. Dard has impacted hundreds of lives in his community through his hard work with TBC. Before he leaves high school, he’s pushing to make one last change. Dard has asked the Wake County School System to allow blood drives in schools again, so other students can get involved in making a difference too.

In a letter to Wake County School administrators, Dard wrote: “Not only does this community service project impact thousands of lives, it helps bring the community closer together, and inspires others to make a difference in their community. The end goal isn’t just about reaching a numeric goal, but also inspiring students to become active in their communities, whether it is by organizing book drives, growing their own gardens, etc…As a whole, Wake County high schools can save thousands of lives just by hosting blood drives once or twice a year.”

On Saturday April 6th, Dard hosted a high school blood drive with Panther Creek and Green Hope high school students in the Whole Foods parking lot on Arco Street in Cary, NC. The drive collected more than 100 units, saving approximately 300 lives. Before the drive started, Dard was also awarded a scholarship because of his success with TBC, to be used for college expenses (the check was written to The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill).

Dard has been leaving a lasting mark on his community throughout his high school career. He’s been involved with blood drives since he was a freshman at PCHS. Before The Blood Connection became the primary blood supplier for UNC Rex Health Care in 2018, Dard had already hosted four blood drives on his own. His first drive with TBC last year was his most successful, bringing in 120 donations that helped save approximately 350 lives. Since the Wake County Public School System does not allow blood drives in schools, Dard has made it his mission to change that.

Dard’s grandfather is his inspiration for becoming a blood donation advocate. His grandfather had multiple blood transfusions during open heart surgery when Dard was younger. His inspiration couples well with his intense passion to make a difference in his community and to bring people together.

“I want to leave an impact on my community. I want to have a legacy of quantifiable impact. I find satisfaction in helping others and leading projects for the greater good,” Dard told TBC. “The issue of a blood shortage hit close to home, as I knew what it felt like to almost lose a loved on… It’s fun to bring a community together in the act of saving lives.”

TBC is so grateful for Dard’s dedication to his community and willingness to serve as a blood drive host. He is truly an inspiration. He has not only affected the lives of local blood recipients, but their families too. He will surely make an even greater impact as a student at UNC Chapel Hill.

The Raleigh Donation Center is located at 5925 Glenwood Avenue. It’s open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m on the weekends. Blood donors must be healthy, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be 17 years old or 16 with written parental consent. Photo ID required. To reduce donation time, donors can make an appointment in advance at: https://thebloodconnection.org/

Check out the TBC High School Program, which awards students like Temoor who are impacting their communities through blood donation and hosting blood drives: https://thebloodconnection.org/events/school-programs/high-school-program/

Dear Wake County High School Administrators,

My name is Temoor Dard and I am a senior at Panther Creek High School in Wake County. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to direct blood drives ever since I was a freshman up until now. PCHS has been very consistent with the blood drive tradition, and due to our improving success, our partner, the Blood Connection (a blood bank serving the Triangle), has asked us to start this initiative across all high schools in Wake County.

NC is facing a critical blood shortage, and the only way to address this problem is to get more people to donate blood, because blood is one of the few things we can’t artificially manufacture. Every pint of blood saves 3 lives and it only takes 15 minutes to donate.

However, Wake County, as of January 2018, does not allow high schools to have blood drives on campus. Fortunately, PCHS has been very successful in hosting our first ever off campus blood drive last November, and we would like to help other high schools do the same. For some context, the blood drives on campus at PCHS consistently brought in 70-80 people, but our first off-campus blood drive brought in 154, doubling our previous total. That same level of success and more can be emulated throughout Wake County. As a whole, Wake County high schools can save thousands of lives just by hosting blood drives once or twice a year.

Not only does this community service project impact thousands of lives, it helps bring the community closer together, and inspires others to make an difference in their community. The end goal isn’t just about reaching a numeric goal, but also inspiring students to become active in their communities, whether it is by organizing book drives, growing their own gardens, etc. In the end, the option lies up to you to pursue this community service event.

Keep in mind, if you are interested in pursuing this event, the blood drive would most likely be held in April or May, depending on how fast it can be organized. It normally takes a little over a month for PCHS to fully organize their drives. Blood drives are held on the weekend to not interfere with school hours.

I’ve also attached a document below detailing the first steps you should take to start your blood drive initiative at your school. It details everything about points of contact at the Blood Connection, incentives, advertising, registration, set up, and more.

If you have questions or concerns, please let me know and I will help you to the best of my ability. I look forward to working with you!

Thank you,

Temoor K. Dard

PCHS Blood Drive Director

Lifesaver League: Meet Us at the Mound

Mar 7, 2019 | cBlog, Events, Promotions

Meet Us At The Mound – Donate Blood!

Take me out to the ball game! In 2020, that wasn’t an option – but BASEBALL IS BACK! That means – our Lifesaver League Blood Drives are back too! If you’d like to root root root for the home team with us, we’ll meet you at the mound/blood drive on the dates below!

*Click on the red letters below to make your appointment.

Greenville Drive Blood Drives :

Asheville Tourists Blood Drives:

Durham Bulls Blood Drives:

Charleston RiverDogs Blood Drives:

Myrtle Beach Pelicans Blood Drives:

Our mission is so important that we can’t strike out. A batter gets three chances before he’s out. Sometimes patients only have one chance to live another day. That chance could come from a loyal blood donor, like you! We get really fired up when baseball season comes back around. It’s the time honored tradition that American families have adored for decades. And it’s our time to ask our communities to step up to the plate, and donate blood.

The Lifesaver League is a partnership with local baseball teams. It all started about ten years ago with the Greenville Drive. We hit it out of the park so much that when TBC expanded into North Carolina, we pitched the idea to the Asheville Tourists and Durham Bulls. Boom, Lifesaver League was born. Now we’ve expanded in Charleston and have the Charleston RiverDogs on board. These teams really are in a league of their own; a league that represents the true sense of teamwork to bring someone home. Not to home base…home to their family. One blood donation has the power to do that for three people.

In the same way baseball fans have a sense of camaraderie every game, TBC’s mission is to engage the community to donate blood and save lives. Teaming up with these teams has truly been a home run. Baseball fans get the chance to become donors and life savers, impacting people in their communities. We need more Allstar players on our team.

Spartanburg Churches Host Blood Drives

Feb 28, 2019 | cBlog, Events, Host Spotlight

Spartanburg Churches Host Blood Drives

The “Ecumenical Blood Drive” group is an influential collaboration made up of seven churches in Spartanburg County: Trinity United Methodist Church, St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, Episcopal Church of the Advent, Westminster Presbyterian Church, First Presbyterian Church, and St. John’s Lutheran Church. Together, they host blood drives at their churches to support area hospitals. At their most recent blood drive this month, the churches collectively donated almost 200 pints of blood, which has the potential to save almost 600 lives. Over the past year, the group helped save approximately 6,000 lives through its other blood drive donations.

“The joy of knowing that every ounce donated directly impacts the lives of those receiving is a monumental driving force that serves as encouragement for me to influence as many people as possible to donate,” says Beth Cecil, spokesperson for the group.

The drives are held on the same Sunday multiple times a year and are open to members and nonmembers of each church. Cecil likes to think of donating as a form of mission work, a way to inclusively serve the community. “Not everyone can travel globally or make time to volunteer locally during working hours. However, through giving blood, everyone has the opportunity to be involved in outreach mission work. No check has to be written, no time lost from work or time taken away from family…There are no barriers, only the love for one another to work together for our fellow man.”

TBC’s President and CEO, Delisa English, recently presented to current and new members of the group at First Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg, thanking them for their continued efforts.

“The Blood Connection is immensely honored to partner with the Spartanburg Ecumenical Group providing the opportunity for their members to impact lives of those in their community through the gift of a blood donation. This is a unique example of how a collaboration like this can be both successful and impactful,” says English.

The cold, winter months along with the inevitable flu season make the blood supply particularly vulnerable. As donations decline, the need for blood tends to rise. TBC’s mission is to ensure all hospital partners have the blood supplies needed for patients at any given time. On average, it takes more than 500 blood donations per day to maintain an adequate blood supply. English says an unexpected trauma can require 20 pints of blood or more. If there happens to be multiple traumas that require blood, the community supply could be dramatically reduced.

Cancer patients are usually the number one recipients of blood, but blood is also needed for burn victims, premature infants, car accident victims, heart surgery patients and organ transplant patients.

Those patients and future ones rely on groups like the Spartanburg Ecumenical Blood Drive. Their success is proof of a strong love for their community. TBC is so appreciative for the group’s huge impact and hopes other organizations will take the challenge to collaborate too.

Faith-based organizations also have the opportunity to receive grants.