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World Blood Donor Day Human Blood Drop Photos

Posted on: Monday, June 14, 2010

Category: Announcements, Events

Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. And, sometimes I realize I just successfully complicate things.

Case in point – taking a human blood drop photo of conference attendees in ADRP’s red World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) Conference T-Shirts, sponsored by Fenwal, Inc. and supplied by Francis Communications.

As you know, centers around the world are forming human blood drops to draw attention to WBDD, which is celebrated annually on June 14.

After much discussion, the ADRP Board and Conference Committee decided to attempt our version of the human blood drop during the 2010 Conference Host City Event. Despite the numerous times that conference attendees tried to collect the T-shirts during the conference, we would not hand them out until Friday prior to the Host City Event so we could get our photograph.

Unfortunately, the Seattle skies opened up and it poured rain prior to the event and we did not accomplish the much-desired photo shot.

I had envisioned the type of photograph accomplished by LifeSouth, reproduced in our June 11 E-Newsletter (photo at top of page).

After the ADRP newsletter was e-blasted last week, I received samples of two beautiful human blood drops formed with about two dozen individuals. That’s when I realized, maybe it wasn’t so much that things didn’t go as planned as we might have been complicating the photo by trying to include all the conference attendees, when we could have focused on smaller groups.

Rolf Kovenetsky, Vice President of Corporate Development for New York Blood Center (NYBC), sent me a photo of a human blood drop formed by two dozen of NYBC employees in New York City's Times Square.

Then this morning I received an email with a photo from Perry Jefferies, Blood Donor Recruiter, at Robertson Blood Center at Fort Hood Texas. Their human blood drop was titled “Strength of the Nation protecting the Blood Supply.”

What great pictures that were well executed with small groups.

Diane de Coning of Safe Blood for Africa Foundation, who works on one of the WBDD Committees told me ADRP has another opportunity next year to do a blood drop at the conference because the WBDD committee plans to continue using this as an effective way to promote WBDD for 2012.

I would love to hear ideas from members on ways ADRP could promote WBDD at the 2011 ADRP Conference in Minneapolis.

I encourage everyone to register their World Blood Donor Day events at http://www.who.int/worldblooddonorday/registration_form/en/ and to sent photos and information to dswift@adrp.org.

Thanks.