By Steve Costello & Terry Jaye
posted
Jan 2, 2013
Dear Editor,
If anyone needed their faith in humanity restored after the
tragedy in Connecticut, the Gift-of-Life Marathon may have been the
perfect tonic.
Just four days after the unfathomable Sandy Hill horror, nearly
2,000 people, from 16 to past 80, rolled up a sleeve, submitted to
a needle, and gave a pint of hope, charity and kindness in the form
of life-giving blood. People filed into the four sites on faith
that we had solved problems that led to four-, five- and six-hour
waits in 2011.
After last year's drive, itself an amazing exhibition of giving
but a sign that the community might be outstripping the ability to
pull off a seamless event, organizers at the Red Cross, WJJR and
Green Mountain Power took several deep breaths and reconsidered the
event's future. We agreed the waits were unacceptable, and
that the drive's growth had been so dramatic that we had to
consider major changes.
After lots of soul searching, hundreds of conversations with
each other, volunteers and donors, the Red Cross concluded that
though we were pushing the limits, they would work to give Rutland
one last shot at the national record.
Even before we announced this year's goal, Rutlanders and
Rutland businesses began lining up to help:
· City Resident
Tony Cirelli contacted us in August - AUGUST! - to let us know his
students at Burr and Burton Academy would be there in force if we
held the GOLM once again. Other schools quickly followed
suit.
· Folks at Omya,
Long Trail Brewing Company, Westminster Crackers and Vermont
Country Store offered whatever we wanted for donor gift bags, and
dozens of others stepped up too.
· The Paramount,
College of St. Joseph, Rutland American Legion and Elks Club
offered space and staff to host the drive.
Once we announced the goal and plans to improve the drive,
community support snowballed. There were some questions, no
doubt, about whether we'd be able to dramatically improve on last
year's number, and just as important, last year's execution. But
that didn't stop the groundswell of folks lining up to help.
More businesses stepped forward with gift bag items. City
leaders, including Rutland's police and fire chiefs and Mayor Chris
Louras, helped spread the word.
Dozens of friends and supporters posted on Facebook and Twitter.
News media, from our local Rutland Herald and weeklies to the
state's TV stations and even WJJR radio competitors, provided broad
and deep coverage, many of them also offering significant
advertising support. And more than 1,800 people made
appointments.
Your readers know the result: The Red Cross and our volunteers
succeeded in producing a far-smoother, more efficient event than
last year and we collected 1,954 pints, making it the
second-largest community blood drive in U.S. history, and a bright
spot during one of the bleakest periods in memory. We set a
national record for the number of individual donors to give blood
on a single day. More than 300 people donated for the first time,
including dozens of 16-year-olds.
Whether we broke the pint record or not, the drive succeeded in
its ultimate goal, to significantly bolster the regional blood
supply, and several unspoken ones: to bring the community together,
build bonds and local pride, and put aside all differences, at
least for one day.
We're often asked how a community as small as Rutland can even
set such outrageous goals, or donate 1,954 pints, and we always
give the same answer: there is a special spirit in the blood of
this community. That spirit lives on in everyone who helped,
and in that spirit we say thanks, and the blood recipients and
their families say thanks for the gift that this great little
community has given to uncounted individuals and families.
Steve Costello, vice president of generation and energy
innovation at Green Mountain Power, and Terry Jaye, program manager
at Catamount Radio, are co-organizers of the Gift-of-Life
Marathon.
~Steve Costello and Terry Jaye
