The Summit Club of Flower Mound will host its eighth annual “Honoring Our Heroes” Blood Drive at the Cross Timbers Family YMCA in Flower Mound from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.
It will be a partnership event with Carter BloodCare, which has committed to giving out exclusive Dallas Cowboys “Let’s Get Rowdy About Donating Blood” t-shirt to donors, while supplies last.
According to The Summit Club of Flower Mound, the blood drive to “honor our heroes” was started in 2018 when Flower Mound resident Dan Licardo, a former Navy SEAL and friend to many Summit Club members and town first responders, was involved in a catastrophic car accident that took both of his legs and required doctors to use 94 units of blood to save his life.
Today, just as it was then, blood is great demand.
The goal of the blood drive, set by the Summit Club, is to collect more than 200 units of blood to honor military members and first responders.
Seven years have passed since Licardo’s accident, but he is still thankful for the blood donations and efforts given to save his life.
“There’s not enough I can say about the first responders, the Care Flight team and the doctors who worked so hard to save me after the crash,” he said. “If it weren’t for the equipment, the staff and the training provided by the citizens of Flower Mound, my story could have had a much different ending.”
Blood that is donated, so it doesn’t last forever, which is why the Summit Club continues to host its blood drive and encourages residents to donate.
“Most people don’t realize blood is a perishable item with a shelf life of about 42 days,” noted Don McDaniel, President of the Summit Club of Flower Mound. “To make sure hospitals have what they need, the blood supply has to be replenished regularly but only about 4% of people who can give blood actually do. We know our community can come together to donate 200 units of blood in a day. We just need people to make an appointment and come join us. It’s an hour to literally save lives. The community rallied when our friend Dan was in need but now, there are others who need our community as well.”
To sign up for a time to donate, visit the Honoring Our Heroes Blood Drive website.
Another Carter BloodCare blood drive will be hosted at Denton County ESD No. 1 in Argyle on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. as a way to commemorate the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
It is one of many events throughout Denton County that will honor the lives lost during the attacks.
The exclusive Dallas Cowboys t-shirt will be available to donors at that event, as well, while supplies last.
According to the Carter BloodCare:
- Carter BloodCare is the primary blood supplier to more than 200 medical facilities, for their patients.
- We service a territory covering 50-plus counties in north, central and east Texas.
- Our service focus is local. Carter BloodCare is reaching out to local people to voluntarily supply blood to local and regional medical facilities.
- We are a not-for-profit, 501(c) (3) organization.
- We contract with medical facilities to provide the services to them that are associated with blood and transfusion medicine. (We collect, process, test, and distribute the blood for their patients; plus, we manage the inventory of the blood, whether it has already been delivered or is waiting to be delivered. This includes monitoring for expiration dates.)
- About 37 percent of the population, at any given time, is eligible to give blood.
- Less than 4 percent of blood donors, in the Carter BloodCare service area, donates blood.
- There are more blood donors over age 50 than there are between the ages of 16 and 50. This means the blood-donor base is aging.
- The aging donor trend means that these loyal donors are facing the stage of life when they will become more likely to require blood products than to be able to donate them.
- There are about 600 to 800 patients daily who require blood transfusions and many of them will require more than one unit and/or type of blood product.
