Costa Mesa church marks 40th anniversary of hosting blood drives

For decades, Mesa Verde United Methodist Church has done its part in organizing blood drives on behalf of the American Red Cross.

Originally held in various locations around the church campus, including classrooms, the fellowship hall and even the sanctuary, today the drives are conducted in a self-contained mobile unit.

Since November 1983, when the mission began at Mesa Verde, the church is credited with arranging for the collection of more than 588 gallons of life-saving blood. The latest drive was held Monday and marked the effort’s 40th anniversary.

Mesa Verde United Methodist Church on Monday marked the 40-year anniversary of hosting blood drives on behalf of the American Red Cross.

(Susan Hoffman)

Coordinator Lynda Wood of Costa Mesa said she started working blood drives in 1955 when she was a 16-year-old high school student.

“My mother told me during one summer vacation that since I wasn’t doing anything that day, ’You can work a blood drive,’” said Wood. “Back then the nurses wore white caps and white dresses, and they took blood into glass bottles instead of bags.”

Costa Mesa resident and veteran donor of over 100 times, Laura Lane customarily donates five times a year.

“I started because Lynda [Wood] was my Sunday school teacher,” Lane said. “She’s been setting a good example for all of us to donate.”

Christine Welch Sypowicz, regional communications director of the American Red Cross Southern California Region, expressed her organization’s gratitude for the drive.

“The Red Cross is grateful for blood donors rolling up their sleeve to donate and for blood drive hosts like Lynda Wood and the Mesa Verde United Methodist Church for hosting blood drives that bring the community together to offer hope and healing to hospital patients.”

From left, blood drive organizer Lynda Wood, Vanguard College volunteer Emersen Baumgart and donor Laura Lane stand in front of a Red Cross mobile unit on Monday at Mesa Verde United Methodist Church Costa Mesa.

(Susan Hoffman)

Welch Sypowicz explained that a single blood donation from one individual can help save the life of more than one patient.

“After the blood donation process, most whole blood donations are spun in centrifuges to separate it into transfusable components: red cells, platelets and sometimes plasma,” said Welch Sypowicz. “Plasma helps control the risk of bleeding by helping blood clot, platelets form clots and stop bleeding, and are most often used by cancer patients and others facing life threatening illnesses.”

According to the American Red Cross, holidays are traditionally slow for donating blood, making it hard on the local as well as the nation’s blood supply, but people are still in the hospital and still need blood.

Mobile operator Bernard Deshone hugs fellow co-worker and registered nurse Richard Suhartono during the 40th Red Cross blood drive held Monday at Mesa Verde United Methodist Church in Costa Mesa.

(Susan Hoffman)

Welch Sypowicz said that there remains a constant need year-round from hospitals for blood products to treat not only seasonal illness but accident and burn victims, heart surgery, organ transplant patients and those receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease.

“Blood cannot be manufactured or stockpiled and can only be made available through the kindness of volunteer donors,” she said.