Blood drive went as scheduled amidst COVID-19 concerns
Tue, 04/14/2020 - 9:06am
admin
By:
By Sue Sims
While many blood drives have been canceled, Vitalant blood mobile came ready with facemasks and extra precautions to accept blood donors at the blood drive in the Wes Westrum Gym, Clearbrook Community Center held on Wednesday, April 8th. It was wonderful to hear that all appointments were full for the blood drive, but walk-ins were also welcomed.
Many steps were taken by the staff, all wearing facemasks, to keep donors and themselves safe. So before even entering the blood drive you had to have your temperature taken by a Vitalant staff member. Once you were cleared with a normal temperature, you handed over your ID to the volunteer and sat to wait for another staff member to call you. Once called, you went to the next station where you had the usual finger stick, blood pressure check, pulse taken and the dreaded “you have to step on the scale”, (no hiding the truth now!). The extra steps of safety here were staff members wiped EVERYTHING down with sanitary wipes. Before and after the process done at this station.
Next stop was the chair for donating. It was comforting to observe the staff wiping down chairs after each donor. After the donation you are told to sit at one of the tables for 15 minutes and have a snack and hydrate. There were round tables set up with only 2 chairs per table to keep the social distancing. It was awesome to see Nancy Goudge, the blood drive coordinator, (also wearing a facemask) disinfecting tables and chairs after people left. She explained to each person that the snacks had to be individually wrapped (no more bakery cookies, crackers and cheese, or glasses of juice or cups of coffee). So, offerings were prepackaged beef sticks, fruit snacks, crackers with cheese or peanut butter, water and variety of juices.
Thank you to all who donated. With COVID-19, we need blood donations more than ever.
The next blood drive is scheduled for June 8, 2020 from 12:30 PM - 6:00 PM at the Gonvick MN Community Center-Main Room, 1st and Main in Gonvick.