| Rainy
day makes for successful blood drive
Brenda Kaschmitter and Cheri Holthaus, the co-chairs for the Red Cross Blood Drive are happy to announce that they met their goal!  “The
rain didn’t stop the donors from coming in; in fact it was one of our best
blood drivers in quite a while,” said Brenda Kaschmitter. “Our goal
of 90 was surpassed and 95 units were collected. But as we all know
it wouldn’t be possible without the many efforts of the whole community”
“The success of our blood drives depend largely upon our volunteers,” said Cheri Holthaus. “Without them the blood drives would not be able to take place. We would like to thank, Marlene Jungert, Theresa Uptmor, Sue Sonnen, Anna Gehring, Delores VonBargen, Doris Sonnen, Bobbie Schmidt, and the VFW Post 491 for everything they do which includes making the lunch for the volunteers, making phone calls, checking in donors, keeping donors organized, preparing and serving the famous maple bars and juice. We would also like to give a special thanks to the HOSA students who help us tremendously by either putting up posters, setting up, tearing down or escorting the donors; Demetria Riener, Josh Zigler, Josh Roeper, Dakota Wilson, Beka Bruner, Lydia Lustig, Abi Chmelik, Daun Hoene, Heidi Holubetz, Savannah Walsh, Amanda Dinning, Tiffany Stinson, Shayla Sears and Mckenzie Candalot. We would also like to thank their advisor, Sheri Daly for organizing the students.” “We would like to give a special thanks to Prairie High school for allowing us to come up and give a presentation to the junior and senior classes,” said Brenda. “We had 19 high school students sign up to give blood; of those 19 there were 14 first timers. We are hoping that by them donating blood at a young age they will continue to do so throughout their lives.” We would like to acknowledge all 19 first time donors that came in, Dr. Jeremy Ostrander, Jeremy Schmidt, Karl Chambers, Scott Perrin and Allen Sonnen, the remaining fourteen were Prairie High School students; Nick Shears, Savannah Moudy, Kyle Marker, Kendall Schumacher, Chris Bradley, Mckenzie Candalot, Amanda Dinning, Ashley Connon, Claire Whitley, Alex Duman, Andrea Kaschmitter, Tucker Stefan, Samantha Keating and Jenny Gimmeson. Along with the first time donors there were a few who received milestone pins. Kevin Conger received her 1 gallon pin, Jim Gehring and Elsie Reichlin both received a 5 gallon pin, Rod Behler and Geralyn Jentges both received their 7 gallon pin; a special thanks to these folks for their continued support of the blood drive. “We also want to thank the 35 employees of St. Mary’s Hospital for coming out in force to support this blood drive; at one time there were 10 SMH employees all there at the same time either giving blood or getting ready to give blood. It makes me proud to work for a facility that supports the efforts of the Red Cross and our local blood drive,” said Cheri. “Both Brenda and I would like to give an extra special thanks to Dr. Ostrander for coming in and donating.” “We hope to see all our past donors as well as some new donors at our next blood drive which will be on January 31,” said Kaschmitter. “If you would like to make an appointment please feel free to contact either myself or Cheri Holthaus at 962-3251.  |
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