Good People

On January 25, I attended a luncheon hosted by the UCLA Blood & Platelet Donor Center
Fernando and Jaime, the unit managers
My history as a donor there began on September 11, 2001, when I donated my first pint of blood. My whole life I had made excuses not to give blood, but after watching the live footage of the 2nd plane crashing into the WTC and being numb with shock and worry about friends in NYC, the voice of reason belonged to Ralph Garman of KROQ. He was the DJ on the air that morning and he urged us to go to our local blood banks and make donations to try to help the victims of the terror attacks. Fortunately, I arrived early enough that morning to beat the rush of good samaritans, and to my pleasant surprise, after the donation was over, one of the staffers asked me, "AMC or Mann?" as in which free movie ticket would I like to receive!
Ron is the master of my tricky right vein
Last Friday, I was pleasantly surprised again with a nice beach towel that says "I save lives." Everyone that attended the lunch got a beach towel because the grand prize drawing (a trip for two to Fiji) was being held during the lunch. I didn't qualify because I was too sick and/or busy to stop in during the qualifying period, but freebies are not my motivation for being a regular platelet donor at UCLA.

There were two mothers at the luncheon who thanked us for helping to save their children's lives. It was hard not to be overwhelmed with emotion while listening to their testimonies. One mother has become a regular donor and recruiter herself. Her son was diagnosed with leukemia when he was only 5, but now he is a 19-year-old college student! While my platelets may not have been given to those particular patients, for the first time I was able to hear what my platelets and whole blood have been used for and it cheered me tremendously (I was battling a work-stress funk).

Over the years, I have worked my way up to a 3 gallon donor pin, so I was floored when I noticed that the woman next to me at lunch had a 23 gallon pin (that's what I'm pointing at).
Lynn ROCKS -- 23 gallons!!!!!!
It was also nice to see Daniel again--we worked the Countrywide Men's Tennis tournament together in July and I had lost contact with him, but I recognized him and grabbed a seat at his table during lunch.

Reunion of tennis tournament clothing shop slaves
Thursday morning I stopped in to make my 27th overall donation. I was happy to pass the hemoglobin screening (14.3 vs. 12.5 minimum). I was not so happy about the scales (I weighed in at over a buck and a half), but I will be doing something about that when I get to Kobe (perhaps swimming or POLE DANCING class?! It's very popular in Japan right now!!!!!)

Most of all, I was happy to thank the staff in return by giving them a sampler of Doughboys desserts (red velvet cake, double chocolate cupcake, German chocolate cake, hummingbird cake, and double chocolate walnut cake...). Hopefully I will have time for one more donation which will bring me to 3.5 gallons, but there's a LOT of crap to do between now and next Wednesday night, when I fly to Atlanta en route to Tokyo!

Oprah likes it! She featured Doughboys' red velvet cake on her TV show.