Virtual Blood Drive

Hello Fellow Noon Rotarians,

As you read in last week’s Spoke, we are conducting a “virtual blood drive” in competition with other Inland Empire Rotary Clubs. Nika Hogue has been gracious enough to help in the initial outreach to the surrounding clubs, garnering participation from 11 other clubs! We’d been brainstorming various service opportunity ideas and we both thought a blood drive was feasible, and extremely helpful to others. We also wanted to engage our fellow Inland Empire clubs to participate to maximize the effort… and a little competition never hurts, either!

LifeStream has worked with other organizations on “virtual blood drives” so it made the partnership that much easier since they have the logistics in place already. By spreading this challenge out over the course of March, we hope to make it fun and easy to participate. And for those who don’t want to donate blood, monetary donations to LifeStream will also count as participation in the challenge. (donations can be made by check or debit/credit card. Details on donations by check are in the attached flyer, or you may donate online here)

Here are some logistical details and additional information:

  • LifeStream has provided club-specific marketing material (‘Redlands Noon Rotary Club’ PDF attached).
  • There is a code on the attached flyer specific to our club- this is used to track the participation of the clubs and will be used in determining which club had the highest percentage of participation. For Redlands Noon Rotary the code is ORNO. When you register online to make an appointment to donate blood, it is important that you enter this code as part of the process.
  • Also attached is a LifeStream safety protocol pdf, for reference on the precautions being taken during COVID-19.

There is a landing page on the LifeStream site (click here to access it) made specifically for this Rotary Challenge with further details and access to resource links. There are 8 donation sites, but you can also search via zip code for mobile donation centers which I have found provide even closer locations to donate.

During last week’s meeting, many of you had specific questions- This FAQ page has many answers to those questions. If you still have unanswered questions, let Chris Alvarez or Nika Hogue know and they’ll track down some answers.

Lastly, we will plan to announce the winning club the week of April 5th. We just need to circle back with LifeStream to ensure they’ve calculated every club’s participation. Since this is a virtual competition, we’re considering hosting a Zoom happy hour/recognition, likely in early-April. We’ll let you know the details!

Thank you for your participation – we may still be navigating the difficulties of coming out of this pandemic, but that won’t stop us from providing for our communities.

Chris Alvarez

Redlands Noon Rotary, Community Service Chair