Last year, the president of the Rotary Club of Wolfville, John Horton, passed away from cancer. Although John had been a member of the club for only six years, he was very active, already serving as Treasurer, Club Service Director, and Vice President. During the short time between his diagnosis and death, he received numerous blood transfusions in an effort to stabilize his condition, but sadly, John passed away on June 9, 2017.The Club’s regard for John’s contributions was very high, and they honoured him with a Paul Harris Fellowship posthumously last December. In memory of John, the Rotary Club of Wolfville would like to stage a friendly blood drive competition between Rotary Clubs in District 7820. This yearly event will be held in cooperation with the Canadian Blood Service’s ‘Partners for Life’ program, and its intent is to increase blood donations to the Canadian Blood Service. The club with the largest per capita number of donations in each calendar year will win the competition, and thereby receive $1000 from the Rotary Club of Wolfville to be spent on the charity of their choice. The per capita calculation will be based on the number of members in each participating club on January 1 of each year, so clubs that recruit new members who donate blood will have an edge on the competition.
To stage such an event, each Rotary club will require a coordinator (termed ‘champion’ by the Partners for Life program) to register their club online in the blood drive, to assist members to also register in the program, and to coordinate member blood donations throughout the year. This can be done by merely encouraging members to donate at regularly scheduled blood drives in their area (scheduled and facilitated by the Canadian Blood Service). The Partners for Life program will keep track of donations made by each Rotarian and tally these donations per Rotary Club. Results can be viewed online on the www.blood.ca website during the year, so you can see how your club is doing relative to other clubs in District 7820. Should a member be unable to donate blood for any reason, to ensure fairness, the member will be allowed to designate a friend or family member to donate in their stead. This designate will register just like any Rotarian in the Partners for Life program and attach themselves to the appropriate Rotary Club.
At the end of each calendar year, the winning club will be identified and the prize of $1000 will be made at the yearly District 7820 Conference. Once a club and its members are registered in this District 7820 competition, their registrations will roll over, so they will automatically be able to compete for the prize again in the following year. Members of the Rotary Club of Wolfville believe that this program is a fitting tribute to John Horton, as it not only will increase the critical blood donations needed by our Canadian health services, but will create new connections between clubs within District 7820. If your club is interested in participating in the John Horton Memorial Blood Drive with us, please identify a ‘champion’ (coordinator) from your club and have them get in contact with the Rotary Club of Wolfville via: Cliff Stanley, Community Services Director, Rotary Club of Wolfville, (902) 670-0817, cliff.stanley@acadiau.ca
Their intent is to have the first blood drive competition starting in January, 2019, so please register as soon as possible.
Submitted by the Rotary Club of Wolfville