MS donor marks 33rd gallon
Alabama-Central Gulf Coast
Blood donors tend to become passionate about the good they can do by giving blood. Mr. John Kelly of Biloxi has taken that passion to a whole new level.
On May 3, 2010, Kelly marked the momentous occasion at the Edgewater Mall RSMO, happily recording his 33rd gallon of donated blood in the presence of Red Cross staff.
Kelly began his donation career early on in life, taking up the habit after watching his father donate blood for years.
“I started when I was 18 years old, back in 1942,” said Kelly, a World War II veteran who saw combat in the Pacific theater. “I really just started because I saw my dad doing it a lot, and he always told me it was an easy thing to do so I picked it up when I was eligible and the rest has been history.”
Kelly was joined at Edgewater by retired Red Crossers Sandy Grant and Laura Hojem, two nurses who manned the MS Coast donors center in Biloxi before it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Though both are now enjoying retirement on the Coast, Grant said she wouldn’t have missed Kelly’s landmark donation.
“He is just such a nice man, a veteran, and like a lot of our donors from Mississippi, he is just like family to us,” said Grant. “Regular donors like John really made the donor room here a special place for us all.”
To mark the occasion, Kelly was presented with a plaque recognizing his 33rd gallon and a gift bag full of Red Cross gifts by American Red Cross charge nurse Yulanda Taylor.
Kelly said he is motivated by a number of factors, the greatest of which it gives him a way to continue to give back to the community.
“Well, I know it’s needed, because you can make a lot of things but you just can’t make blood,” said Kelly. “Not enough people do it, but it’s an easy thing to do, it doesn’t hurt or anything like that.”
“Plus,” Kelly said with a grin, “you get to meet some nice folks.”
