Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D-Cicero) announced that his 14th annual Lifesavers Blood Drive, hosted in conjunction with the American Red Cross on Tuesday, July 21, 2020, was a huge success despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, collecting 182 units of blood and tying the record for most ever collected at the annual event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe simple fact is that blood donors save lives, especially during the difficult times we find ourselves in,\u201d said Stirpe. \u201cCOVID-19 has hurt the ability to conduct blood drives across the country, while the need for blood and plasma at our hospitals and treatment centers continues. I\u2019m grateful to everyone who donated, and I am once again inspired by the generosity of Central New Yorkers who come out year after year to give the gift of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blood and plasma donations are used to treat a variety of medical conditions, including cancer, leukemia, sickle cell disease, anemia, severe burns and trauma, internal bleeding, premature births and blood transfusions.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDonating blood is always important, but it\u2019s incredibly vital right now to help COVID-19 patients recover and ensure local hospitals aren\u2019t impacted by regional blood shortages,\u201d said Kristin Crandall of the American Red Cross. \u201cI\u2019m grateful to everyone who made a donation, especially during this ongoing public health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stirpe thanks the musicians who played at the event; the businesses and individuals who donated prizes, Aminy and Edward Audi of Stickley and Patrick Mannion, in particular; and everyone who came out to give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stirpe apologizes to those who tried to be walk-in donors but were turned away due to the overwhelming response of donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One particularly interesting aspect of this year\u2019s blood drive was that it occurred while the Assembly was in session. Usually, the mid-summer event happens once session has concluded for the year. But due to the pandemic, a remote session was scheduled the same day as the annual drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was attending Assembly session remotely from the blood drive,\u201d said Stirpe. \u201cNot only did I have three bills pass the Assembly that day, but I believe I became the first New York assemblyperson to vote on a piece of legislation while actually giving blood. So, it was an interesting day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information about making a blood donation, visit the Red Cross website at redcrossblood.org\/donate<\/a> or contact Stirpe\u2019s office at 315.452.1115 or StirpeA@nyassembly.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [1]<\/sup><\/a> redcrossblood.org\/donate-blood\/blood-donation-process\/what-happens-to-donated-blood.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D-Cicero) announced that his 14th annual Lifesavers Blood Drive, hosted in conjunction with the American Red Cross on Tuesday, July 21, 2020, was a huge success despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, collecting 182 units of blood and tying the record for most ever collected at the annual event. \u201cThe simple fact is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[23746,26878,25482,26876,25493,26877,26882,23719,26880,26879,26875],"class_list":["post-112574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story","tag-american-red-cross","tag-anemia","tag-assemblyman-al-stirpe-d-cicero","tag-cancer","tag-covid-19-2","tag-internal-bleeding","tag-kristin-crandall-of-the-american-red-cross","tag-leukemia","tag-premature-births","tag-severe-burns-and-trauma","tag-sickle-cell-disease"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Al-Stirpe.jpg?fit=226%2C222&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-thI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}