Supporting two causes at the same time
Photo by CHANSE WATSON The Inland Northwest Blood Center donation bus sits outside Osburn City Hall as people donate blood inside. Temperatures hovered around 108 degrees Friday, but people still made sure to support the event.
Donors Tim Little (far left), Dianne Waters (far right) and Jillian Waters (behind Dianne) sit patiently to give blood while phlebotomists Holly McMillon (white coat) and Jazmine Zerbe (grey scrubs) prepare to collect the donations. Little, the uncle of last year’s event beneficiary, Dylan Browning, wanted to support the drive another year. Dianne and Jillian, the wife and daughter of Pat, also showed up to support the cause.
By CHANSE WATSON
Managing Editor
OSBURN — For the second year in a row, the Inland Northwest Blood Center collected a substantial amount of blood donations at their drive in Osburn.
Held in front of City Hall and the fire department, almost 50 residents braved the high temperatures and showed up last Friday to not only help someone in need of blood, but also to support a local man’s fight against cancer.
Known by many as the longtime wrestling coach at Wallace Jr./Sr. High School, Pat Waters was diagnosed last November with glioblastoma — an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Upon its discovery, Waters had to have emergency surgery in Spokane to remove the tumor. As part of his treatment, he will soon be going to the University of Washington in Seattle for chemo and radiation therapy.
A situation such as this can take its toll on a family in several ways. There is the obvious physical pain, but there is also an enormous amount of emotional anguish as well that comes from seeing a loved one in a dire state. At that point, the monetary burdens seem trivial, as one would spend everything to keep family and close friends. Unfortunately for those afflicted and involved though, the topic of money cannot be ignored as medical treatment is not cheap.
Lisa Millard, event organizer and Osburn Municipal Clerk/Treasurer, has orchestrated both the 2017 and 2018 Osburn blood drives with the goal of helping somebody in this situation and others who may be in need (whether the need be blood or money).
Millard explained that the event got off the ground last year when she and personnel from Shoshone County Fire District No. 1 wanted to host a blood drive, but also support Silver Valley native and firefighter, Dylan Browning. Browning had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Burkitt Lymphoma.
“Last year was the first time that I decided to try to do a blood drive/fundraiser,” Millard said. “We did it for Dylan Browning and it had great success. It was a huge blood drive with great numbers.”
With the success of the 2017 drive, she decided to do it again. Before the drive could be announced this year though, it had to be decided who would benefit from it.
After speaking with people in the community, Pat Waters’ name kept coming up.
“I contacted the family and got their OK for that,” Millard explained. “Then I just kind of tied his face and story to the blood drive just to bring awareness to him and his process, as well as get people out to the blood drive.”
From what INBC North Idaho Territory Manager Rob Balison says, the people certainly came out.
“Unbelievable,” he said of the turnout. “Another great event. With the showing that we had, we couldn’t even keep up.”
The new blood bus that INBC used for this drive is equipped with five donation stations/seats, which allows the staff to handle about two new donors every 15 minutes.
Balison reports that drive raised 36 units of blood from 42 different donors in roughly five hours.
Both of these numbers are significant considering that an event this size usually only raises between 10 to 20 units, and that the buses’ capacity for donors is 40 in one day.
The event had such a great turnout that five people who arrived later in the day had to be turned away.
On top of the great blood donation numbers, close to $300 was raised for Waters and his battle with cancer.
“A lot of people came in support of Pat,” Balison said. “They had been impacted by Pat in different ways throughout their lives, which is why we came out to support him.”
In addition to just simply donating money, supporters also had the option of buying tickets for five different raffle items that SCFD No. 1 put together.
With solid numbers in both blood and money raised, Millard was overjoyed with this year’s result and hopes to make this an annual event.
“The donations of blood are what we are really driving for,” she said “but when we can tie it to a person, or story, or a need, it really benefits the person, as well as the people who come out to donate (blood).”
Balison stressed the importance of the blood donations by saying that each of the units collected has the potential to save three lives.
“That’s over 100 people that will be impacted by those donations,” he added. “Within the next two-weeks, those will be transfused to somebody in need.”