Race for the Cure

This past Saturday, I volunteered with Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. My active-blood-donor sister got an email to blood center donors asking for volunteers and after learning that we would earn a t-shirt and visor, we quickly signed up to help! MVRBC donors and staff were volunteering at the fundraising race because approximately 17% of all blood transfusions nationally are for cancer patients.

We had participated in the race when we were younger, but had never volunteered at the event before. We arrived bright and early on Saturday morning to learn exactly what our job entailed. We got to sit in chairs near the finish lines (yes lines, there were two lengths of races so two finish lines) equipped with cutters. Our job was to clip the zip ties that held the tracker/timer chips onto the participants shoes. It was a pretty simple task for the beautiful morning. I enjoyed the morning of volunteering - it was fun to be a part of such a large community event and spend time with my sissy!

  Fun  Facts:

• 1 in 7 patients entering our hospitals will need a blood transfusion.
• Only 38% of people are eligible to give, less than 10% do.

Bonus: There is a new baby giraffe at my local zoo! (He is just 6 ft tall and 150 lbs!!)