Sheppard sets records during blood drive

Published Feb. 28, 2008
By 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs

SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- To most, 1,500 is an insignificant number. To the American Red Cross, that's the number of lives saved by Sheppard Air Force Base personnel when they donated 500 units of blood during the first blood drive of 2008.

For every unit donated Feb. 19-20, three lives were saved, said Jackie Hamm, the ARC account manager for the Wichita Falls office.

"This is our first drive for 2008 and what an image that has been," she said. "I can't express how what transpired over the past two days will have an effect on so many military and civilian people."

Not only does the drive help people in North Texas and the ARC's Southwest Region, but also military men and women around the globe. Units of donated blood will also be sent to the blood donor center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

Not only were lives saved at the two-day drive, but records were broken, Ms. Hamm said. Sheppard set the record for the most units collected in a single day at a single site in the Southwest Region. Donors also set the record of "double red cells" collected with 38, shattering the record from Tulsa, Okla., of 24.