Alan Vollman first started to donate blood to the Red Cross in 1971 when he was in graduate school in California. He had read an article describing how heart transplants were becoming more common, but the amount of blood required for these operations put a strain on local blood supplies. He continued to give blood during his first career as a public school teacher. At that time, donors could bank their blood and specify who could receive the units donated at no cost. Alan often chose family members of his school community when families made emergency requests for blood.
When Alan moved to Washington, DC years later, he sought out a Red Cross blood donation center near his downtown law office. On a slow workday, he would to go to donate blood -- a time to relax with a short nap on a comfortable recliner. Once he became a regular donor, volunteers encouraged him to donate platelets instead of whole blood. In the US, platelets are needed every 30 seconds as they are transfused into cancer, surgery, transplant, and blood disorder patients.
The platelet donation process takes a little longer than a whole blood donation. Blood is taken from one arm, platelets are extracted by a machine, and the remaining blood components are returned to the other arm. Alan finds this downtime relaxing and uses it to listen to lectures on interesting topics or to work on his Spanish. One time, a friend gave him DVDs of the Best of Dave Chappelle to watch during the donation. Alan laughed so hard that he started to cry, but he was unable to wipe away the tears since needles were in his arms. Other people heard him laugh and gathered to watch the shows with him. By the end of the extraction process, streaks of salt marked his cheeks where the tears had evaporated.
Alan has been donating platelets for 15 years and still donates whole blood occasionally. These donations give him a positive feeling, and he enjoys receiving emails notifying him of the type of patient who received his donation. Alan says, “I have family and friends who have needed platelets. I have met parents whose children have received them. These people know how important platelets are and tell me that donors like me have kept them or their child alive. A couple of quiet hours on a cozy recliner can provide months or years to someone who could die without platelets.”
Alan has also been a volunteer with the Disaster Action Team (DAT) since 2009 thanks to encouragement from his wife, Ann. Ann is currently a volunteer in casework recovery planning at the Red Cross headquarters in Fairfax, VA. Ann has also volunteered with DAT for many local and national disasters since 2005. As a DAT volunteer, Alan has enjoyed meeting new people from all walks of life. Alan says, “What Red Cross volunteers have in common is that they all care about their community. Volunteers quickly learn that there is a lot of suffering in the neighborhoods of our wealthy National Capital Region. Some people are living on the edge, and no matter how small a fire or other home disaster may be, it is often a personal Katrina for that household.”
Alan’s message to someone considering volunteer work with the Red Cross is this: “Good deeds are the dues we pay for being members of our community.” As a friend once told him, “Giving money is not hard to do for some; money comes and goes. But time is a gift one can’t earn back; it is unconditional.” Or to put it in lawyer speak, “Money is fungible; time isn’t.”
Thank you DAVE for all you do for Red Cross and the community! Wonderful
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