Donation Station: Tinton Falls Community Blood Drive

For the last three weeks, my third grader has been coming home with facts about blood and blood donations.  She's told me why it's a healthy and helpful thing to let my blood flow into the bank, the Central Jersey Blood Center (CJBC). 

Tinton Falls students were armed with all the facts and figures needed to persuade their parents to come out to the Community Blood Drive on March 24 held at the Mahala F. Atchison School and run by the CJBC.

I've been happy to hear about it all, although I need no encouragement to open my veins.  I grew up hearing the same data from my mom, also an elementary school teacher, who was a champion blood donor.  She was proud and pleased to bring us along whenever she made a deposit. She was something of a record holder for all of her letting. 

And for the last three years, I've done so at MFA and subsequently, the folks at CJBC have occasionally reminded me when they were in need of more of my O positive.  CJBC does an amazing job of outreach.  In a day when e-mails and text messages make it easy for organizations to simply digitally request your participation, CJBC calls blood donors and personally requests their assistance.  

"Did you know," my daughter asked on the morning of the blood drive, "that giving blood is especially healthful for you dad, because it lowers the risk of heart disease when you get old?"  I didn't know that, but evidence shows that it is indeed true.  It has to do with the retention of iron stored in the male circulatory system, too much is dangerous to the arteries.

"Did you also know," she said, "that the class whose parents donate the most blood gets a pizza party?"  Apparently the way to parents' blood flow is through their children's stomachs.  I told her I would give a little and she beamed with admiration and dreamed of two slices served up hot.

The annual MFA blood drive is now 10 years old and it is important to note that it is the only school in the Tinton Falls district to hold such a drive, important because of the tireless work of the duo who are behind the blood flow. 

Ed Davis, MFA health and physical education teacher, started the blood drive in the mid-90s at Swimming River School, where he formerly taught.  The drive was part of the school's annual Health Fair.  When Davis began educating at MFA in 2001 he and Lynne Landis, (health and PE teacher), the other member of this dynamic duo, decided to continue the drive there. 

The CJBC would bring the familiar donation bus and handle appointments and walk-ins at the Health Fair.  "We weren't collecting a large number of units then, so in 2009 we decided to schedule a separate blood drive to improve turn out," Davis said. That decision was critical in the current success of the amount of donors serviced.  Davis is pleased with the progress. The number of units collected have steadily risen from 35 in 2009 to 80 in 2010 to 86  this year.

Indeed, each of the last three years that I have given at MFA, I have noticed slightly longer waits to actually have your blood drawn; longer to make you notice and appreciate the turn out but not to turn you away.  Davis credits the success with his and Landis' efforts to remind the children and the children's efforts to remind their parents. 

"The student's are drawn into it through these reminders," Davis said. In class and at school assemblies Davis and Landis make the students aware.  Flyers and coloring books that educate the children about blood and blood donations are sent home.  The mission is two-fold, to increase supplies and to increase an understanding among the children of the importance of the life-force.  Davis said, "the emphasis through all of it is on saving lives."

Blood donated to the CJBC helps to treat premature babies, burn and trauma victims, patients suffering from leukemia and other cancers, cardiac disease and many other conditions that depend on blood products for recovery. Approximately 65 percent of the blood supply comes from blood drives sponsored by area businesses, communities, schools and other organizations.

After teaching all day and giving their own units of the red stuff, Landis and Davis patrolled the donation stations, thanking and praising other donors and making themselves available to answer questions and assist the tireless work of the CJBC staff.  Davis was there well after the 8 p.m. close of intake. 

When I was patched and given my orange juice at 8:30 p.m., Davis was still on his feet and on his mission and proving that blood flow is now on the minds of his students, our children.

"Just today," he said, "a little girl came up to me during lunch duty and told me a classmate had a nose bleed, which reminded her about the blood drive and how important it was to donate."

For more information about the Central Jersey Blood Center, check them out on the web at: www.cjbcblood.org.  And consider rolling up your sleeve today.