As chair of the City Council 19th District blood drives, I would like to thank the 29 concerned northeast Queens residents who volunteered to give the gift of life during our blood drive in Whitestone on Saturday, April 20.
Thanks to modern techniques, the precious platelets which last just a few days may have already helped a half dozen endangered patients or more. The red blood cells are helping people now and the extracted blood plasma and other components could help to preserve a life as far in the future as April of 2014.
According to the Red Cross, nationally the most-likely blood donor is a late-30s male college graduate. Anyone familiar with our Queens neighborhoods knows that we aren’t “average” about very much. Most of our donors were women, and most donors were in all likelihood considerably older than 35, begging the question, “Where are the young donors?”
Many thanks once again to those who care more about others than they do about the headlines and I hope to see more young, first-time donors in the future. It’s the one heroic thing you can do while relaxing in an easy chair.
Victor G. Mimoni
