Blood Drive Re-Cap

The blood drive that was put together for Jake was completely overwhelming to me and to Kelley & Shanon!!  I got to our church around 9:30 a.m. to let the workers in to get set up.  People started arriving before 10 a.m. and they just kept coming and coming.  It was amazing and overwhelming at the same time.  I had no idea what to expect, so I wasn't prepared at all.  Initially, we had 4 stations set up for donors.  An hour into the drive, the Blood Connection reps had to call in reinforcements.  We ended up with the 4 stations and a blood mobile!!!  We were constantly moving people around to keep the temp. down in the social hall and at one point, the entire hallway was full of people waiting to donate their blood for Jake.

At the end of the day, there were between 80 - 85 people who donated.  I think 10 or so people had to be turned away because of time constraints.  AMAZING!!

I learned several things yesterday that I didn't know about....

One being that it takes 6 donors for Jake to get one unit of blood.  That's a ratio of 6:1, which is why it is even more critical for more people to be active donors.

The other being how blood drives work for Jake.  For each unit of blood that he has to have, the Blood Connection will give credit to him for the blood that has been donated in his name.  I think it costs around $25 for each unit of blood, so for each person that donated yesterday, $25 per person was put into an account for Jake.  All Kelley has to do is keep up with her explanation of benefits showing where Jake received blood and then turn them in and the Blood Connection will send them a check.

Third being the fact that our church is not big enough to accommodate such an outpouring of love and support!!!  Which in my opinion is a GREAT thing!!!  We had the social hall filled to the brim yesterday morning and nothing makes me happier knowing that all of those people were there for my nephew!

Thanks again to everyone who made the blood drive such a huge success.  I can't wait to do another one soon!!

Parking lot was full 2 hours into the blood drive!

3 beauties who are on #TeamJake

Hate this pic is blurry :(  I had to add it though because of the comment April made after she took it...
"Good Lord you've got some long legs!"  Ha!

Shanon - my brother in law and Jake's daddy

Kelley - my sister and Jake's mama