By Rob Katz
The American Red Cross Blood Center brought therapy dogs and live music to their Interfaith Blood Drive last Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church.
The biannual drive, co-sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church and Congregation Shir Ami, ran from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The interfaith event marked the first time the Red Cross has featured therapy dogs at a blood drive in Connecticut, according to Kelly Isenor, external communications manager for Biomedical Field Marketing and Communications at the American Red Cross.
Each hour, a different therapy certified dog from Fairfield County took their shift. Scooter, a Labradoodle, began the morning, and was followed by Otis, a Bernese mountain dog; Oscar, a Cavapoo; Casper, a bichon frise; Tate, a German shepherd mix; and Bella, a Yorkshire terrier.
The dogs and their certified trainers were assembled for the day by Dana Neuman, who reached out to the trainers through her program Healing Hounds, which operates throughout Fairfield County.
“People love the dogs and love to pet them,” Red Cross volunteer Ross Ogden said. “They absolutely have been a wonderful addition to the drive.”
The drive also had a full schedule of musicians playing piano, cello and violin.
Also, while not a new occurrence, homemade foods such as deviled eggs and cookies are traditionally contributed by members of each congregation, according to Isenor.
The new additions were part of the Red Cross’ prioritization of the donors’ comfort.
“We want to make the whole experience as nice and pleasant as we can for our donors,” Ogden said. “One way is to provide some entertainment while they’re here.”
Isenor emphasized a desire to give back to donors.
“We want to make sure that it’s a pleasant experience for everybody involve in the hopes that they’ll become repeat donors or if they’re already repeat donors to just say thank you, we’re looking out for you, we know what you’re doing is a gift and we want to take proper care of that gift,” Isenor said.
The interfaith collaboration, Ogden felt, was crucial to multiple factors of the drive’s success.
“This is a way that we can cooperate with each other to have a drive that’s large enough to warrant it being a Saturday and having staff from far away come down. Individually, none of us probably would be able to generate enough donations,” Ogden said.
As well, the musicians and some the volunteers present at the drive were from each of the congregations. The other volunteers present were Red Cross Donor Ambassadors.
According to Isenor, the drive raised 56 whole blood donations and six units of “power red”—donations taken with a machine that takes twice as many red blood cells from the donor without removing plasma and platelets from the donor’s bloodstream.
“This number exceeds both our original goal for this drive and a later goal that was revised to be even higher, which is fantastic news,” Isenor said.
Skip Sinclair, the husband of First United Methodist Church pastor Heather Sinclair, was among those donating blood.
“It’s a great event, and I’m glad that the churches are able to come together and work together to make sure it’s always a success,” Sinclair said.
Doing whatever possible to fulfill the demand for blood in the summer, Isenor noted, is crucial to the Red Cross’ mission.
“We see in this time of year a drastic decline in new donors and then the people who are current donors sometimes delay making that appointment [in the summer months],” Isenor said. “Last summer there were nearly a third fewer new blood donors than during the rest of the year. Summer is a time when we want to keep people coming out. Hospital patients need blood year-round.”
