I have recently been going out in at least a Red Cross hat if I could and at most a hat and t-shirt to promote blood product donation awareness. Given that I ditched most of my wardrobe aside from my ARC shirts, this is now pretty easy to do.

I’ve even gotten a few comments from people about it and one or two requests for the telephone numbers for Apheresis and Whole Blood donation. I just hope they actually went through with it.

It was actually kind of funny. A lot of people blank on hearing the word ‘Apheresis’ and until I explain what it is, they’re staring at me like I’m from Mars or something. Once they understand that it’s usually donating plasma and/or platelets, they totally understand.

I just get a little peeved about the ‘Are you doing it for money?’ comments. I get nothing from this aside from orange juice and pretzels, as well as the occasional volunteer gift like a t-shirt or something.

I did get one good comment though from someone who knew what was involved. I was at Mondawmin Metro station waiting for the train and this lady came up to me and asked me whether or not I worked for the ARC and when I told her that I just did Apheresis, she told me about how it had saved her life once to get donations when she was in hospital and that she really respected what I did. Whoa…heavy. I was so floored that I thanked her for thanking me.