Blood Drive 2020
“My 80-year-old dad kept attempting to break quarantine to get out and donate blood. I really wanted to do something to put his mind at ease, and help too.”
The IntelliTect team is proudly partnering with the Red Cross to hold what we expect to be the first of many blood drives at our office in Spokane, Washington.
On Monday, August 31, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., we’ll roll up our sleeves and help save lives with the American Red Cross. The Red Cross has over 135 years of experience providing humanitarian aid including more than 75 years of supplying blood to those in need.
Their passion to “prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found” falls directly in line with our philanthropic mission of giving freedom to the hopeless through our partnership with organizations that fight to eliminate poverty and injustice both locally and worldwide.
Want to Join Us?
Our goal is to find thirty-seven people to join us, and you can be one of them. Meeting our blood drive goal is vital because it helps ensure hospitals can meet patient needs. Patients are counting on us now more than ever.
As a bonus, you will be tested for COVID antibodies and get a five dollar Amazon gift card!
A typical donation takes less than an hour. Each pint of blood we collect can help save up to three lives and will touch the lives of so many more. Donating during the pandemic makes a direct impact on people in our community and across the country.
Sign up here or email our office manager extraordinaire, Stephanie Perko, for more info.
Everyone has a Why
Every donor has a reason and every reason is unique.
Stephanie is leading this initiative in honor of her dad, Howard Riebe. On a regular basis, he calls friends and asks them to pick him up and take him in and donate blood, even though he’s not able to anymore due to him having had cancer (We won’t talk about the part where he’s quarantined and not supposed to leave the property!).
Howard keeps seeing commercials talking about the high demand and need for donations. He was a donor for almost thirty years and had received a “ten gallon T-shirt” long before he had to stop donating. Howard refused to accept that he was no longer eligible to give, so Stephanie told her dad that she’d try to get a person or two to donate.
Stephanie and her dad hug just before quarantine goes into effect at his retirement home in March, 2020.
Each time Stephanie says she’ll get more volunteers, she can hear the smile in her dad’s voice when he says, “OK, that sounds good. See what you can do, honey.”
After convincing a few new blood donors to sign up, Stephanie started thinking bigger.
What more could she do to help the pandemic’s current blood shortage?
A blood drive!
Then, she heard that when you donate blood, they also test for COVID antibodies, and currently, Amazon is giving every donor five bucks!
Donating could help the donors too!
“I thought it was just a great community thing to do and saw how much they’re needing blood.” Stephanie said. She knew IntelliTect could help, so she reached out to Mark and Elisabeth Michaelis, founders of IntelliTect, proposing the drive. They were instantly on board.
“We welcome people to come and use our space at a time when things are difficult and are proud to give back to our community however we can,” Mark said. “We’ve already had twenty-one people sign up. It’s becoming something positive that our team can look forward to.”
A Social Distanced Blood Drive
Sign up with Stephanie to reserve your spot. When you arrive at the IntelliTect office, know your safety is our top priority.
We’re encouraging the few employees that work at the office to stay at home during the drive unless they’re donating. Our volunteers will be adhering to social distancing and will be masked up throughout the event. IntelliTect will be providing drinks and snacks for the donors, while Red Cross volunteers will be monitoring vitals.
Written by Erin Wissing.
Want to Donate?
You can still sign up and snag one of our remaining sixteen spots. Please consider helping us make a difference in Spokane, Washington.
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