Marylee Shrider: Thieves stole blood trailer, but you can still give blood
| Friday, May 16 2008 05:20 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 08:21 PM
There’s been a lot of bad in the news this week, but first place in the how-low-can-you-go category surely goes to the creeps who stole the field trailer from Houchin Blood Bank early Tuesday morning.
The thieves apparently stopped by the blood bank in the wee hours, unhitched the trailer from a company truck, hooked it up to their own ride and hightailed it home.
Stealing from a blood bank? An agency whose sole purpose is to save lives? Makes one wonder how the sticky fingered cretins spend their time when they’re not victimizing charitable nonprofits. Probably with something really fun, like drowning kittens or snatching purses from old ladies on walkers.
Houchin officials say it was a nice trailer, as trailers go, but there was little inside of monetary value — a half-dozen folding donor chairs, tables, camping cots and the like. Officials also took pains to point out there was no blood, blood bags or personal donor information in the trailer.
Nothing of any real worth, at least not to the average crook.
But when it comes to the business of blood, the equipment had life-and-death value, say Houchin staff, who regularly hauled the trailer all over Kern County in their endless quest for donations.
“An equipment loss like this affects everyone,” says Houchin spokeswoman Tracy Hunter. “This is personal. It’s personal to our Houchin family, our donor base and our community.”
The loss of the trailer is especially disappointing in a county where people apparently aren’t real excited about donating blood.
The folks at Houchin were too polite to say that, but the numbers do. In a county where 60 percent of its nearly 800,000 residents are eligible to donate blood, only 3 percent do so.
That amounts to about 50 to 60 units of blood, per day, not nearly enough to maintain the local supply, Hunter says. Not when one cancer patient can use up to eight units of blood per week. Or when one leukemia patient can use up to two units per day.
Or when one victim of a car wreck or stab wound can use up to 50 units of blood.
Three percent, people. What a wimpy number, especially for a community as caring as Bakersfield.
So what’s the problem? Afraid of needles? Strapped for time? Never even think about it?
Please. It’s just a little pinch, takes about 45 minutes and Houchin staff will gladly give you a call about every eight weeks or so. For some busy folks, the field trailer was more than a mere convenience, it was a reminder to give and encouraged some to donate who’d never done it before, Hunter says.
The trailer — a white 1996 Wells Cargo trailer with the Houchin logo and license plate No. 4DC2022 — is still at large and may take a while to replace. But the week doesn’t have to be a total wash.
As it happens, Houchin and members of the local chapter of the Disabled American Veterans are hosting a military blood drive Saturday in celebration of Armed Forces Day, a day we Americans occasionally set aside to remember and honor our military forces.
There’s music, food and ice cream. Need more incentive? When you donate blood, you save a life. What better way to celebrate Armed Forces Day than to donate blood in honor of those who have spilled theirs?
You have until 3 p.m. on Saturday. Get going.
•••
In my column five weeks ago, I wrote about Bakersfield High School’s ROTC cadets and their all-out effort to raise $5,000 to buy new flags for veterans’ graves at Union Cemetery.
Thanks to Bakersfield’s usual generosity, the cadets raised $4,300, and at $1 apiece, that’s a lot of flags. The flags go up Memorial Day, May 26. Good job, cadets.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Marylee Shrider, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Saturdays. Reach her at mshrider@bakersfield.com or 395-7474.
