Gladys Lopez, of Nutley, holds a pint of her blood. The donation was made to the New York Blood Center at the Women’s Club of Glen Ridge.
While January is National Blood Donor Month, the Women’s Club of Glen Ridge traditionally has had a blood drive and did Sunday, Jan. 11.
The blood was collected by the NY Blood Center and according to Sharon Harms, the chairwoman of the club’s Community Service Department, 67 donors preregistered. She ran the drive with Carmen Pence.
“For years, we’ve done blood drives and cooperated with the local EMS group,” Harms said. “Between the club and emergency services, we collect a lot of blood. We’ve worked with the American Red Cross, but after Covid, decided to give New York a try. EMS works with them.”
Food was provided to the donors. In addition to the snacks and juice the blood bank brought, the club provided homemade soups — chicken, with or without spinach, and pumpkin, homemade cookies and sandwiches.
“You have to feed people or they’ll faint,” Harms said.
Many donors are repeat donors and the club makes the event a pleasant experience. Harms said that once, a first-time donor to the club, seeing the ballroom, the arranged chairs, people being served soup, wanted to know if he was at a wedding reception.
“Giving blood is life-saving,” Harms said. “What more intimate thing can you give but your own blood? But not everyone can give blood. They may be taking medications. But if you can, it’s a way to give back to someone’s life. It’s not like they can manufacture blood.”
In the ballroom there were four gurneys near the stage and three technicians. Two gurneys were occupied. In one was Gladys Lopez, of Nutley. Needle in arm, she said she tries to donate regularly, but is often not permitted because her blood/iron count is usually too low. This is a signal that her hemoglobin, which transports oxygen to the tissues and carbon dioxide away from it, was probably too low. She had not donated for five years, although she often tried, but on Sunday, she had the iron.
“My mother was anemic and they never refused her blood,” she said. “She’s passed away now. That’s why I do it.”
The technician removed the needle and applied a bandage. Her name was Nancy Curbelo.
“Raise your arm like Lady Liberty,” she tells Lopez.
Curbelo said the maximum amount of blood a person can donate at one time is a pint and depending on the donor’s body size, that can take up to 20 minutes. Lopez took six minutes and 39 seconds. Labeled, she hands Lopez the plastic bag containing her blood.
“It’s heavy,” Lopez said, surprised.
“A pint of blood can save up to three lives,” Curbelo said.
In the other gurney was Connie Diliberto, of Jersey City, who, after donating, had the chicken soup without spinach. She was with a neighbor, Satish Chandra. He did not give blood. For medical reasons, his doctor did not give him the OK.
“He told me to hold off,” Chandra said.
Diliberto tries to donate every 56 days.
“That’s what you’re allowed to do,” she said.
It was her second time donating at the club. It was a pleasant environment, she said and remarked that she has been to “some pretty lousy ones.”
“This is the best,” she said. “It’s clean, the ladies are lovely and there’s parking in the street.”
She also donates in Jersey City and Bayonne, but not Hoboken because of the parking. She wanted to donate before going on vacation.
“It’s a little bit of a sacrifice having to drive and the little prick of a needle,” she said, “but that’s nothing compared to the people getting the blood.”
Chandra said the public is not educated about blood drives and the N.J. state secretary should be advertising its importance. For 29 years, he was a nuclear medical technician in several hospitals.
“Sometimes there were emergencies at the hospital, but the blood bank was dry so they asked the employees to donate,” he said.
Diliberto said she has donated more than eight gallons of blood in her lifetime.
“I first donated in 1984, at work, but it really picked up when my parents went into a nursing home,” she said. “They had blood drives and I did it five times a year. I was practically there everyday. When they passed, that’s when I had to start looking around and realized places to donate were scarce.”
If anyone plans to donate blood, Diliberto said they should go to the organization’s website and open an account because donations garner points which can be redeemed for gift cards.
“I only know this because I’m an IT person and I’m always looking to log in and start an account,” she said. “I really should be a spokesperson for the New York Blood Center,” she said, ‘but the bottom line is you do feel good when you donate.”
About the Author
