Deb Julian retires from her role coordinating Lancaster City Employee blood drives

LANCASTER − A member of the Lancaster community who has been responsible for the donation of thousands of pints of blood over the years is retiring from her position.

Deb Julian, Red Cross Blood Program Leader for the Lancaster City Employee blood drives, is retiring after over a decade of service. She has been coordinating blood drives in Lancaster since 2012. Julian also serves as an employee at the Lancaster Engineering Department, a role which she is not retiring from.

“We had a drive here that was city employees and it was very hit or miss, we’d get 15 or 20 donors and that was all well and good,” said Julian. “It was very unorganized. When they stopped doing it, they asked me to takeover. That’s how I got involved.”

After Julian took over Lancaster’s employee blood drives, donations dramatically increased. With the city’s blood drives failing to reach their goals, the original plan was to phase out the drive entirely. However, the first drive that Julian coordinated collected 23 units, far exceeding the goal of 15, and they continued to grow from there under her leadership.

“The blood drive that she took over was dropping in the number of units that it was collecting,” said American Red Cross Account Manager III Jane MacMillan. “Then she took over and she collects 52 units of blood at least per drive, and she almost always makes that or exceeds it.”

According to MacMillan, in the 11 years that Julian has been running the blood drives, she has collected 2,851 units of blood. MacMillan said that Julian has a certain quality about her that brings people out to her drives.

“Her donors donate because she’s the one asking them to,” said MacMillan. “She has that type of relationship with her donors.”

One notable way in which Julian builds a relationship with her donors is through homemade treats.

“She always brings homemade cookies that she has made to the blood drive for her donors,” said MacMillan.

In 2016, Julian was nominated for a national contest that the Red Cross held for Blood Program Leaders. She finished as one of the ten finalists throughout the entire country.

“My biggest thing has always been that (blood) can’t be mass produced, it can’t be man-made,” said Julian. “If we don’t donate blood and a family member or myself or you need blood, where’s it going to come from? If we don’t donate, where’s it going to come from? That’s always been a concern of mine.”

Julian remained humble, giving the majority of the credit to those who participated in her blood drives.

“I don’t know that I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of our employees and people of the community who have stepped up to donate,” said Julian.

While Julian gives the credit to those participating in the drives, MacMillan made sure to point out that the former is no stranger to donating her own blood.

“The other thing that makes her amazing is that she regularly donates blood herself and she also donates platelets,” said MacMillan. “She donates platelets regularly, and that’s a two-hour process. She drives all the way to Columbus to do that. She not only talks the talk but she walks the walk.”

MacMillan spoke to Julian’s personal character by touching on their own personal bond with each other.

“She and I have become friends, that’s how great she is to work with,” said MacMillan. “I consider her a personal friend. She makes my job more fun and easier.”

While she is retiring from her role with the Red Cross, Julian will train a successor to run the Lancaster City Employee blood drive in her place.

Aaron Burd is a breaking news and government reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him via email at [email protected] for comments or story tips. Follow him on Twitter @AaronMBurd.