Dr. Charles Drew Blood Drive

Saturday, June 13th turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. Perfect, not only for the Dr. Charles Drew Blood Drive, but for the outdoor bar-b-q. This was possible thanks to BCRC’s partnership with the Hilarious Riders. This group of young professionals have created quite a buzz on their motorcycles fundraising for worthy projects in Montreal and abroad. Through their initiative they got numerous sponsors, including tapping into the generosity of our neighbour, Maxi, who provided the food and even allowed Hilarious Riders to use their parking lot to flip the burgers and grill the hot-dogs. The bar-b-q attracted a whole new crowd to the drive in our center–exactly what it was intended to do. We are happy to announce that the Blood Drive was a smashing success. We surpassed our goal of 75 and reached 92 donors.

 

Unfortunately, many of our generous community members were not able to give blood due to their low blood iron levels. Statistically, Black women have lower blood iron levels then white women, on which the standard iron levels are based. Good news, however! Héma-Québec will be lowering their iron level restrictions in August 2015 allowing more Blacks to donate.

 

Thanks to all of our community members who donated their time and their blood to a good cause. Thank you also, to our sponsors Maxi, Tim Hortons, and McDonald’s. We would also like to thank our partners in this undertaking, the Hilarious Riders. While this may have been a new partnership, it was very successful. We look forward to further collaboration in the future.

This article was featured in the Semaji June 2015. To read the full version Click Here