PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – At 7 p.m. on the evening of Manitoba municipal elections, some voters were rushing to cast their ballots before polls closed.
But another group of people were lining up outside a church auditorium to do a civic duty of a different kind.
Charlie Clifford, principal of Fort la Reine high school, took an hour-long break from catching up on work in his office to give blood, something he’s done regularly for the past 35 years.
“I have lots of it,” he explained. “Somebody might need it.”
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Last year, more than 12,000 rural Manitobans went to 68 blood donor clinics. Rural donors account for about 20 percent of provincial blood supplies.
As she waited for her appointment, Nancy Fehr explained she gives blood because she sees the need for constant supplies first-hand in her work as a registered nurse at the Portage District General Hospital.
Sometimes, she receives slightly fewer units of blood than she has requested from the Winnipeg blood centre, and has to make do with what she has. Other times, the centre will phone to ask if she absolutely needs what she asked for.
Joyce and Steve Bergson give blood two or three times a year.
“If you’ve got extra blood and can help somebody, I think that’s a good reason to give,” said Joyce.
Steve said he has noticed a large number of donors from local Hutterite colonies over the years. He admires their humanitarian spirit.
“It’s good to see,” he said. “I wish my neighbors would do the same thing.”
At a table inside the auditorium, Darren Waldner and Patricia, Marvin and Norma Stahl relax after giving blood.
They’re part of a group of 20 young people who drove from Grand Colony at Elm River, Man. They say the trip is part social occasion, part duty.
“They need the blood, we give it. We’re healthy,” said Marvin.
Once, the group missed a clinic in Portage, so they drove all the way to Morden, which took a couple of hours.
Longtime volunteer
From her post at the door of the gym, volunteer Viola Painter directed donors to blood service registrars. She has been helping out at blood clinics for more than 25 years as a St. John Ambulance auxiliary member.
Her service group used to play a bigger role in clinics, helping put out beds, register donors and even take blood. But the help volunteers can give became more restricted when problems emerged in Canada’s blood supply, leading to the recent Krever inquiry.
“You can understand why they wouldn’t let volunteers help,” she said. “You could tell that things were pretty tight for a while.”
This gym hums with activity as nurses ferry blood from donor beds to staff who get it ready for the trip back to Winnipeg.
Many longtime donors greet each other by name. People are friendly yet serious, and conversation is purposeful. The crowd is noticeably young and healthy-looking.
Dwayne Schulz, 20, has given blood 17 times since he was 17. Unless he’s busy in the field on the family farm near St. Claude, Schulz tries to make it to every clinic.
Kimberly Brown, 19, waits in a group of about 20 people for her turn to be screened by a nurse.
It’s her second time here. “I just want to help people who need blood,” she explains.
The procedure doesn’t hurt. “It’s scary at the beginning, when they prick your arm, but it’s not that bad after.”
But she emerges from the screening booth with a disappointed face. Her pulse is up, and the nurse thinks she’s not feeling well. Brown says she’ll try again the next time the clinic comes to town.
Ron O’Neil has lost count of how many times he has donated over the past 20 years.
“This is what hurts the most,” he said, extending his cottonball-bandaged middle finger, pricked to test hemoglobin.
O’Neil says he is frustrated by the increasing amount of time it takes to go through the screening process.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said. “I sure wish they could screen me beforehand.”
But he continues to give blood because “it just seems to be the right thing to do. Someday, I may need it.”
