Giving Life
Basin blood donors recognized for their donations
MOSES LAKE — Together Shirley Willard and her husband Cleland have donated a total of 241/2 gallons of blood in the last 30 years.
Shirley has her husband beat at 131/2 gallons compared to Cleland's 11.
"It doesn't bother me a bit when you think about the good you're doing," Shirley said of donating blood.
This year marks the 60th anniversary for Inland Northwest Blood Center out of Spokane, opened in 1945, then known as the Spokane Community Blood Bank. At the end of World War II, after more became known about surgical procedures and replacing lost blood, blood donations increased significantly at INBC.
Within three months after opening, six employees of the blood bank had collected 387 units of blood.
Today INBC has satellite collection centers in Moses Lake, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and Lewiston, Idaho.
In 2000 INBC opened a blood bank donor site in Moses Lake at the Pioneer Medical Center and in 2002 moved its operations to Samaritan Hospital.
This year alone, 1,000 units of blood have been collected from Samaritan Hospital, said INBC CEO Judi Young during a celebration Friday at the hospital.
On Friday, local blood donors who have donated five or more gallons of blood were recognized. One blood donor who wasn't present had given 20 gallons over several years of donating.
Sharon Englehart of Lind was also at Friday's celebration.
Englehart has been donating blood since the 1950s, and recalled laying down on hard tables to have her blood taken. Today Englehart is just shy of reaching the 17-gallon mark. It will be awhile before she can donate again, due to being diagnosed with cancer, but she anticipates being able to donate again some day.
"It gives you a good feeling," she said.
In 2006, Young said INBC is planning to open an adult stem cell processing lab in Spokane to help patients that need bone marrow or stem cell transplants.
By opening a processing lab in Spokane, patients can stay in eastern Washington rather than having to go to Seattle, Young said.
Young also mentioned the possibility of opening a blood mobile in 2007 that would be used to specifically serve people in the Columbia Basin.
The INBC blood mobile is open every Monday at Samaritan Hospital from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.