Walking into Seawell’s yesterday for Rotary, I ran into Hal Stevenson, who was complimenting me on my newfound marketing savvy as I have transitioned into a new career, and I was modestly brushing the praise aside, saying “Tut-tut,” or “My dear fellow, how you do go on…” or some such (between my recent trip to England, too much BBC-America, episodes of “Inspector Lewis” on Netflix and the fact that I’m reading Three Men in a Boat, a copy of which I bought at Blackwell’s, my diction has been somewhat altered lately).
At that moment, we stepped up to the sign-in table, and there was a hard copy of this picture from my blog, blown up, mounted, and standing in front of a display urging Rotarians to sign up for the upcoming Red Cross blood drive. This, of course, only impressed Hal the more. I shrugged — whaddyagonnado?
So we went in, and the meeting began, and then Lanier Jones (president of ADCO, former president of Rotary) got up to urge folks to give in the upcoming Columbia Lifesavers Blood Drive.
And then he called on me to come up to be recognized as the club’s ideal, the very model of the heroic donor, the Single Combat Warrior whom all should emulate, the guy who willingly laid down his life’s blood (some of it, anyway) even before the actual drive — sort of like those heroic aviators who went to Canada to join the RAF before Pearl Harbor. OK, so some of those analogies are mine, but Lanier was pretty laudatory. He even, at Kathryn Fenner’s urging (in preparing these “effects,” I carefully place allies in key positions — Kathryn was at the head table because she had given the invocation, and a fine blessing it was, and didn’t cool the food off none the way I seen some of them interruptions do), mentioned the blog: “that’s bradwarthen.com…”
And then the lovely Kelly Moore from Red Cross came up and gave me a T-shirt — not one of those cheap white ones, either, but a nice deep blue with “LIFESAVER” on it in big letters, a play on the shirt being designed like a lifeguard’s, and Kelly told me that’s what I was, a real lifesaver, and I grinned maniacally, and Bob Ford took our picture.
Just tons of glory.
Now, I’m not saying that all this will happen to YOU if you give, but you never know. And here’s one chance to be a hero like Brad. See the details below, or at this link. Of course, you can make an appointment at the Red Cross ANY time.
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Brad, glad you feel “good” about giving blood. I wish you were just a tad more reporter skeptical about that process. Do you realize how much money the Red Cross Blood Services makes by selling what you donate (give them) and the problems they have had and have still not addressed in terms of quality in this program? Check it out and you might change you mind.
“Oh, he is the very model of a modern Alyx blood donor”
Yeah, I cribbed the invocation out o’ the Book of Common Prayer. I’m kinda an originalist that way.
@ Lynn: I do wish the Red Cross would stop loading up my hubby with expensive schwag that clutters the house and actually do the research to determine that my blood is in fact at least as safe as most of their donors….
Lynn, I can’t claim to be an expert on the finances of blood donations. But I DO know that the Red Cross provides a vital service, and that this community can really use all the blood it can persuade us to donate. Which is why I promote it all I can.
I also know that the Red Cross still has to work pretty hard to come up with the money to cover its vital services (which extend far beyond blood services, although that’s the one I’ve been most involved in), from having served on a committee trying to help raise some of that money.
And if you can’t give blood but would like to give the green stuff (blood is much easier for ME, but not for all), contact Libby Anne Inabinet, and I’m sure she’ll be glad to help you make a contribution: inabinetlib@usa.redcross.org
See, there’s another plug. No wonder they give me T-shirts…
Or this, Kathryn:
But in spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations,
He remains an Englishman!
He remains an Englishman!
… I mean, Ellen…