Gold Medal Blood Donors

by Ashley Messick, Social Media Strategist, amateur skier and avid Olympic figure skating viewer

Last night the Olympic flame was lit in Vancouver, Canada, and so began the 2010 Olympic winter games. It will now be impossible to read the newspaper, turn on the TV or surf the web without the mention of medals, dreams fulfilled and dashed, and whether the USA, Germany or Canada currently have a higher medal count.

Robert Kaufman wrote an interesting article for CNN about Why The Olympics Matter. He contends that we cheer for sportsmanship and athletic success. However, we also cheer for a multitude of nations coming together with one focus, under common rules and peace.

While we don’t quite give our gold, silver and bronze medals for donating blood, we do honor them with our own BCP awards for milestones reached. You will likely not be surprised that people do get into the competitive spirit with their blood donations. Achieving that one gallon, five gallon, 10-gallon mark is cause for bragging rights for many donors. You may be surprised to know that among the list of the top donors from Blood Systems, Inc., of which Blood Centers of the Pacific is a subsidiary, many are from here in the Bay Area.

Gold medal: Tijeras, NM donor with 795 donations

Silver medal: Redding, CA donor with 575 donations

Bronze medal: Corte Madera, CA donor with 572 donations

Honorable mention: Redding, CA donor with 553 donations

Honorable mention: San Francisco, CA donor with 535 donations

Of course many of these donors give platelets , which can be donated more often than whole blood donations, so keep them in mind if you start wondering how you could possibly compete! Our “Hero In Me” program also recognizes our Bronze Level (donate blood once per year), Silver Level (donate blood twice per year), and Gold Level (donate blood three times per year) donors.

As with the Olympics, what matters is that all those who donate blood and care about the cause of blood donation are united by one common purpose: saving lives.

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