Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood. It could be a patient undergoing cancer treatment, someone recovering from surgery, a person injured in an accident, or a mother experiencing complications during childbirth. The circumstances are different, but every unit of donated blood starts with the same thing: someone choosing to give.
Recently, Chesapeake Glazing partnered with Chesapeake Contracting Group for a company blood drive that gave our teams the opportunity to do just that. For part of the workday, we stepped away from projects, schedules, meetings, and deadlines to support a need much bigger than our everyday work. By the end of the drive, our donations had the potential to impact 55 lives.
A Need That Never Stops
Around 33,000 blood donations are needed every day in the United States, yet only about 3% of eligible people donate each year. Blood also cannot be manufactured or stored indefinitely. Red blood cells generally have a shelf life of up to 42 days, while platelets last only several days, which means the supply has to be continually replenished.
That is what makes regular blood drives so important. The need is not something that can be met once and checked off a list. Hospitals rely on people continuing to donate so that blood is already available when a patient suddenly needs it.
Workplace blood drives are an important part of that effort as well. The business community can account for as much as 30% of the blood supply each year, and bringing a drive directly to the workplace makes it easier for people to participate without having to find a donation center or fit another appointment into an already busy week.
For our teams, it was a chance to roll up our sleeves alongside the people we work with every day and contribute in a completely different way.
Donated blood can be separated into components such as red blood cells, plasma, and platelets, allowing a single donation to help meet the needs of different patients. The people who donated during our drive may never know where their blood went or who ultimately received it. It could have been used during a surgery, cancer treatment, an emergency, or another moment when someone needed it most.
In a way, that is part of what makes donating blood so meaningful. You do not have to know the person you are helping to make a difference in their life.
An Impact We May Never See
At Chesapeake Glazing, we talk a lot about partnership and what can happen when people work together toward something bigger than themselves. Most of the time, that conversation is about our projects and our industry, but our blood drive with Chesapeake Contracting Group was a reminder that the same idea can extend far beyond the jobsite.
One blood drive will not meet the ongoing need for blood, but every donor and every drive helps keep that supply available. For our teams, one shared effort had the potential to impact 55 lives, and we are grateful to everyone who took the time to be part of it.
Sometimes making a difference really can be as simple as showing up.
