By Diane Toomey
Meet Donna and Jim Warren, tireless volunteers for Red Cross blood drives in the Vancouver, WA area.
Donna is 80 and Jim is 85, and together they devote 35-45 hours per month helping with blood drives. So far this year, they have been at 53 blood drives which secured approximately 954 pints of blood. One pint can benefit over three recipients, so that equates to potentially saving over 2,800 lives.
Donna and James got married in 2005 and decided they “didn’t want to sit around the house and get old.” Jim had been volunteering with Blood Services before he married Donna, and he quickly recruited his bride. She said that they are always welcomed by blood drive hosts with “glad it is you guys because you know what you are doing.”
Not only do they staff the registration table and the canteen, but they are always out actively recruiting blood drive hosts and donors. They suggest them at church, at the Golden Corral while lunching — wherever they may wander, they are soliciting for hosting a blood drive.
Jim and Donna know that someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds. Jim has donated 17 gallons so far. Jim also had a daughter who needed blood while she battled kidney disease. One day she told Donna that “I know why you do this, you really do save lives.”
They are both proud volunteers of the Red Cross, tireless advocates and supporters of the work that the Red Cross does to meet the blood supply needs in the US. Their Volunteer Engagement Representative, Tamar Bolvadze, describes them as “true believers, advocates in the community, will go anywhere and are limitless.”
American Red Cross NW Region 