Washington boasts high blood donor rate

Volunteer group involvement may be secret to success

WASHINGTON — Like clockwork, every two months, Washington residents can look around and find an ImpactLife Blood Drive happening somewhere in town.

The Davenport-based nonprofit supplies 126 hospitals scattered across Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri, and tries to hold a drive in every recipient community several times a year. In Washington, that effort is coordinated with an array of local volunteer groups, who handle the events as annual affairs, staggered every 56 days or so, the amount of time required for a body between donations.

ImpactLife Account Manager Chris Ciasto said the setup dated back around 40 years, resulting in a city that gave far more blood than it received from the group.

Ciasto said Washington County Hospital and Clinics requested 250-300 units of blood a year, but that the community donated around 1,000 annually.

“Each club hosts one time a year, and then their members do the calling,” she said. “They have a list of previous donors, they give them a call and say, ‘What time can I sign you up for?’ … we just kind of work as partners.”

The arrangement works especially well for rural areas like Washington, where the closest donor center is miles away in Iowa City. Ciasto said around 20% of Washington residents were blood donors.

The national average is about 5-7% according to ImpactLife, although some groups like the Red Cross put the estimate much lower, around 3%.

The next regularly scheduled drive in town is at UP Church Thursday, Oct. 12, from 1:30-6:30 p.m., through the Optimist Club.

Drive Coordinator Dan Pfeiffer said while Washington’s donor population was high, the group always tries to bring new people to its drives.

“As we get older we can’t quite give as often, so we like to really get the word out and try to get new young donors,” he said. “First-time donors … they get hooked on it.”

Kiwanis AM’ers Blood Drive Coordinator Dan Tweeton said the drives were important to members. His group held a successful event of its own at KC Hall in August.

“ImpactLife, they do a great job trying to get local people in and donating, but if we can have local clubs get involved, that just makes it more of a community involvement,” he said. “Getting the clubs involved, and the community, just helps the turnout.”

The Lions Club is also part of the rotation, usually organizing its drives in April.

Club Blood Drive Chair Ron Anderson said there was no secret to achieving the clubs’ high attendance at drives, other than a sustained effort to get the word out.

“It’s community service, it’s something that needs to be done and it’s not hard to do, it just takes a little time,” he said. “Washington’s one of the better turnouts, and Washington should be proud of that … there’s always stories about somebody whose life was saved with blood donations, and there’s pamphlets out at all the blood drives.”

Comments: [email protected]