Nantucket Saves Thanks Community For Successful Blood Drive

To the editor: Thank you, Nantucket! This island once again came together to help the Nantucket Saves team pull off one of the largest and most successful blood drives in Massachusetts Red Cross history! We collected a total of 348 pints of blood that will potentially go to help and save 2,000 lives! That's an incredibly powerful statement and goal this island hit!

The Nantucket Saves team organized this blood drive, but YOU, the Nantucket community, came out in full force to make it happen. A special thanks to the Steamship Authority and Hy-Line for organizing all the transportation for the four blood mobiles and 32 Red Cross volunteers who spent the night on the island.

Jessie and Lisa from Nantucket Office Products have stood strong with Nantucket Saves since the day we came up with the blood drive idea! The Inquirer & Mirror team supported us from day one to help us get the word out across this island, so a big shout-out to them. Bill Ferrall from Daybreak talked up the blood drive from beginning to end, and for that, we are extremely thankful. Jim and Doug from the best radio station in the world, our very own ACK 97.7, were instrumental in getting Dr. Tim Lepore on air to talk about how Lyme disease does not prohibit you from donating blood. That was a critical hurdle they helped us overcome! Jason and the Current were there day by day to inform all the die-hard Current fans as to what Nantucket Saves was hoping to accomplish. Thank you for that!

These generous donors and compassionate souls helped in so many ways. From donating transportation (Kenny from Cranberry Transportation), food for the Red Cross team for three meals a day - Stop and Shop, Patrick from Island Kitchen, the amazing team at Bartletts Farm, Henry's Jr.'s awesome sandwiches - delicious!!!-  and John and his phenomenal team at Roastd for giving us the necessary caffeine boost each morning to keep the 50 workers and volunteers going strong! Congdon and Coleman, the Young's Bike shop family, Woodmeister team, Kim Goodnow (she was there the entire team helping make this event go so smoothly) the Union lodge F. & AM, NAREB, Nantucket Builders Association, RJ Miller salon, Great Point Properties, The Nantucket Athletic Association, Kimberly and Dennis Kozlowski (Kim made the front page of the Inky this week as she was lying on the table donating blood!), J. Pepper Frazier team, Island lumber, Robert B. Our Company, Housefitters, Lee Real Estate, Sconset Gardner (do you need window boxes? they are the #1 place to go for those!) Yale Appliance, Emeritus Development, The Brant for hosting some of our volunteers to stay in their beautiful "home," Aunt Leah's Fudge for the delicious gift of fudge to all our volunteers as a gift from Aunt Leah to our Red Cross team. The Nantucket Fire Department for helping arrange the safe watch of the precious blood mobiles, the Coast Guard men and women for all showing up to donate! The White Elephant (they give, give, and continue to give back to this island with so much compassion), Allison and Chris Bovard, Tyler and Pia Dewing, Margaretta Andrews for opening your homes for our Red Cross volunteers to call "home" for their 48-hour stay on-island. Huge shout-out to Cape Cod 5 for being one of our major sponsors of this event. Cape Cod Five has always been my favorite bank on the island. And they continue to support the island in so many ways

And a big shout out to Cape Cod Express! We had a last-minute glitch trying to get two last blood mobiles on-island that we desperately needed to make our goal. The Steamship worked tirelessly, trying to get us on standby. But in the final hour of angst and desperation, Pat Cleary and Jamie from Cape Cod Express came through! They bumped one of their trucks to make room for the two remaining blood mobiles! Yikes! That was a nervous, anxious 48 hours. Yet one quick call to Pat and he replied, "No worries, we got this! You work on getting the blood, and we will get your blood mobiles over to Nantucket and back." Talk about a lifesaver! Cape Cod Express gets the savior of the year award from me personally, being so generous and compassionate to our cause.

But to you, the Nantucket island community, who believed in our mission and how the rewards of a simple act of donating blood could save a life, is most appreciated. We hope you will all consider joining the Nantucket Saves team next June as we plan on beating this year's goal by 20 percent!

Thank you,

The Nantucket Saves Team
Debbie Decosta
Thea Kaizer
Maryjane Mojer
Lisa Sherburne
Cynthia Lenhart
Pete McHugh
Jean Geddes
Johnathan Rodriguez
Mary-Jo McCann
Tom McCann