A Lifesaving Timeout : Football Fans Trade the Couch for a Cot to Donate Blood in Red Cross Drive

It was a long holiday weekend, and one of the biggest pro football games of the year-- the game, if you asked Larry Weese--was on TV.

But there was Weese Sunday morning at a Red Cross bloodmobile, lying on a cot with a needle in his arm as he missed the first half of the big game. Holiday weekends and football could wait, he decided; this he was doing for the sake of his two daughters, 5-year-old Natalie and 6-year-old Madeline, who insisted on watching daddy roll up his sleeve and give blood.

“I’ve always thought this was a noble pursuit,” said Weese, a 48-year-old real estate broker from Newport Beach. “It’s a good way to teach (the daughters) a lesson. They should know you have to help the sick and the poor because you never know when you’ll need help yourself.”

At a time of year when the Red Cross is looking for more people like Weese, more than 50 donors turned out Sunday morning at the Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Newport Beach to give a pint of blood and help patients in need.

The drive was part of the Red Cross’ “Save-a-Life Sunday” program, aimed at recruiting donors from among local churches and other religious groups. Another drive was also held Sunday at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Anaheim.

In recent weeks, Red Cross officials have appealed for help from the public because of a traditional shortage of blood donors over the holidays. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, officials said, blood donations drop by as much as half.

“Typically, this time of year is always a problem for donations,” Juliet Benton, an official with the Red Cross’ Orange County office, said Sunday.

“We have large companies that are closed for Christmas, people are on vacation, and that kind of thing, so they just don’t give as much (blood) as they usually do. But the need doesn’t decrease.”

The American Red Cross collects about six million units of blood each year, representing half of the nation’s supply. But its procedures have come under increased scrutiny by Congress and federal health officials for more than five years, chiefly because of concerns about blood that could be contaminated with the AIDS virus and other blood-borne diseases.

In 1991, the Red Cross launched a multiyear, $140-million reorganization to strengthen safety procedures. And in May, under pressure from the federal government, the agency enacted further steps to correct problems in record-keeping, accident reporting and other areas.

But such concerns appeared far from the minds of most donors Sunday in Newport Beach.

“The Red Cross really seemed very professional in all their methods,” said Matt Pence, 18, a high school senior who heard about the drive at his church.

“I hadn’t given blood in a while, so I figured why not--it’s convenient,” he said.

Katy Eklof, 19, wanted to give blood, too, but she never got the chance.

The Rice University student had been wanting to donate for a while, but Eklof said she was always worried it might weaken her for her cross-country competitions. Now that she is home in Costa Mesa for the holidays, however, she figured it was a good time.

There was just one problem: The lean runner didn’t meet the 110-pound minimum for donors, so Red Cross officials told her thanks, but no thanks after she showed up at the church.

“I really wanted to give blood,” she said, adding with a smile: “But I’m not going to go home and stuff myself with cookies or anything.”

For the Weeses, the event turned into a family affair, as dad gave blood, and Madeline and Natalie, sitting with their mother, Karen, watched in apparent fascination and munched on cookies. The girls talk a lot about medicine, so it was a good experience, Karen Weese said.

Dad had missed the first half of the big Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants football game, but as Karen Weese watched her husband get bandaged up by Red Cross personnel, she had a feeling about what the afternoon held.

Leaning over to her two daughters, she whispered: “Now he’s probably going to say he has to lie down and watch football the rest of the day.”