BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
Donating blood is something that has saved countless lives around the world for the past 125 years.
The history of blood donation began with the discovery of blood groups in 1901 by Karl Landsteiner, which made transfusions safer. Early transfusions required donors and recipients to be present at the same time, but the development of anticoagulants in 1914 and the creation of the first hospital blood bank in Chicago in 1937 by Bernard Fantus allowed for blood storage. World War II accelerated the growth of blood banks, with programs like the one led by Charles Drew for the American Red Cross collecting millions of pints, while later advancements included the discovery of the Rh factor and the use of plastic bags instead of glass bottles.
This ‘tradition’ continued today at the West Haverstraw Village Hall Community Center with the Hudson Valley Division of the New York Blood Center’s blood drive. Marilyn Valerio, a donor specialist for the past 26 years, “Well, what we’re doing is we’re asking the community to come in, donate a pint of blood. We also have a machine called an Alex machine that takes double the red cells. We circulate your blood through a kit. They’re all individual kits. They’re not reused from person to person and depending on your blood type, we’ll be able to harvest two bags of red cells which we give them for patients depending on what their doctor needs for transfusions,.”
What does a donor specialist do?
“We do a medical on you. We make sure that you’re eligible to donate blood and make sure your iron count’s eligible for you to donate blood. Then we process you and we take a full pint from you. I love my job. We are paid employees. We’re expecting here for about 50, and we hope for 60. We hope when the community comes out like this we get a good number. Midday on a Monday, it’s a little difficult, especially since everybody commutes for work, so we tend to get busier later on in the day.”
She added, “Especially right after Thanksgiving, everybody’s like, you know, everybody can take time off since it was Thanksgiving, maybe people still have the spirit, and they’ll come in. I mean, you’ve got the whole holiday spirit coming through at this point.”
I pointed out to her that my wife and I would donate, but as diabetics we can’t. Today, I learned the first of two new things about donating blood at that moment.
In the first hour there were about 10 people there to donate. One of them was Ed O’Connell who donates every 6 months realistically because he has high iron and it helps me and it helps the community, so it’s a win-win.
I’m helping somebody else and helping myself at the same time.
Other than the good feeling of helping someone else, how’s it helping him?
“Because I have high iron they take blood out to bring your iron level down. I used to go to a hematologist and now I just donate blood instead of throwing it out. It goes to somebody.
Jokingly I pointed out that he doesn’t have to pay a copay.
He laughed and commented, “That too, you know, that too. I didn’t look at it that way. Hmm…No copay you that you got to pay a copay, so you’re saving money and, and blood and helping people. So, it works both ways, yeah.”
He started doing this last year, last December actually, I think I did. I found out online and then I just called up because I have a donor card, so I just called the number and set up the appointment to bring it in.
His doctor told him about his blood iron. My regular doctor did, yeah, he did, and I had a hematologist, but they closed that department. So, I said to my doctor, I said, “Where do I go?” He told me to donate blood people could use it.
That was the second thing I learned today, that donating blood brings high blood iron down.
“I donate every time they have one of these, or it depends because I go to, Red Cross and this one, depending on my schedule of work and what’s their schedule and that’s how I figure it out.” He said on his way to the chair to donate.
Not only were the average citizens there to donate, even government officials, at least one when I was there came to donate. Deputy Mayor/Trustee of the Village of Haverstraw, Gil Carlevaro who just happens to be a member of the Gallon Club. This is reserved for people who have donated at least a gallon of blood.
“All right I think, should be everybody’s civic duty besides voting, you should donate blood and give back to the community.”
Gil Carlevaro
Margie Chapman, organizer of blood drives in the town of Haverstraw in the North Rockland area was working at thins one too.
“I’ve done drives at Farley Middle School and Haverstraw Elementary. West Haverstraw, and then COVID hit.
I’ve been here since July 20th of 2020.”
She’s been doing this since 2006. “Wow, because at Farley I was doing two years, twice a year with the student council.
How difficult is it to organize one of these things?
Chapman stated, “Well, a firemen from West Haverstraw Fire Department Volunteer hose gave me his folder. Henceforth I took over. They still do their drive, he gave me his folder, and it was a piece of cake. I have a director that I just contact her now it’s a guy and just say, OK, I want to schedule a blood drive, so we’ve already got the calendar set up pretty much for next year as well.
Jac Gnirrep Jr., whose wife runs the Feeding Body and Soul Food Pantry is a long-time blood donor.
I’ve been donating for probably like 40 years at least. I always thought it was something good to do and I wanted to do it.
He only had one little problem, and he learned something in the process. “The only thing I learned is, I tended to faint. That’s not good, yeah, after I gave blood, so they always would raise my legs up, make me stay down for a while because I would have either I’d get lightheaded in the chair or I would walk over to the juice table and, But, but it hasn’t happened in a while.”
He continued, “Yeah, but you, do it, so then people ask why do you still do it? Well, I do it because I want to help people. People need blood, so, it’s something I can do.
How often do you donate each year? After a pause to think, he said, “A couple of times a year.”
Yeah, I’m here with Patricia (Patty) Gnirrep, blood donor and head of Feeding Body and Soul in West Haverstraw.
What brought her here today?
“I always give blood. I live right on the street, I have relatively rare blood, I guess, and it’s pretty easy for me to do. A negative. I have been donating since the late 1990’s. I donate as often as I’m allowed, every 3 to 6 months, I guess.”
She has two daughters. One is a teacher in Monroe, 7th grade American History and her other daughter has 6 kids and she homeschools.
In addition to her service to the community by giving blood, Patty runs the Feeding Body and Soul food pantry and was being honored for her work there. How did that start?
Have you ever had any problems with anybody with the food? Has anyone ever gotten out of hand?
“We try to have one male present. There’s a bunch of women that help me. Older like me, no young people.
Either my husband will come or the pastor of the church, he’ll stay, but I’ve never had any incidences of people getting crazy.”
What is she hoping for the future of the food pantry? Will there be an expansion of the services?
“Right now, it’s manageable for me. I don’t know if I could take on more, and I’m not allowed to have more of the basement, so it’s pretty full. Somebody’s gonna have to take the helm when I stop or retire. I’m retired, but when I move away. I was an accountant, and I worked for a lighting company in Stony Point.”