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SOLVITA CELEBRATES NEW BLOOD DRIVE AT MARION LOCAL HIGH

MARIA STEIN, Ohio – Marion Local High School hosted its first blood drive with Solvita Blood Center on Feb. 28, just in time for guidance counselor and senior class advisor Jenny Dippold to enter and win Solvita’s High School Blood Drive Coordinator of the Month award.

Marion Local was one of 35 high schools in Solvita’s 18-county region that hosted blood drives in February. The Feb. 28 blood drive totaled 42 donors, including 31 donations and 40 first time donors. For many of the students it was not their first lifetime blood donation, but their first time donating with Solvita.

Each month of the school year the coordinators of that month’s Solvita high school blood drives are entered in a drawing to win a $100 award.  Jenny Dippold won the February drawing and Solvita Mercer County Account Manager Donna Kueterman presented the check to Jenny at the high school on March 13.

Jenny was joined by senior class officer and blood drive volunteer Nora Eckstein and sophomore donor Trent Homan.

Trent said Nora encouraged him to make his first lifetime donation at the Marion Local blood drive. “I said, ‘You can save lives,’’ said Nora. “It went pretty good,” said Trent. “I’ll probably do it again.”

Jenny has coordinated Marion Local High School blood drives since 2011. “This was the first with Solvita,” she said “It was fun! Everyone was friendly, a lot of interaction between the kids and the blood drive workers, and a very energetic atmosphere.”

Jenny is a blood donor and registered to donate with Solvita for the first time at the Marion Local blood drive. She became especially dedicated to donating after losing her husband Scott to cancer three years ago.

“When you have a loved one who needs blood, it makes a difference, it makes it more personal,” she said. “You see the other side of what blood does.”

Solvita has been the exclusive blood product provider to Mercer Health since 2022 and hosts monthly blood drives at Mercer County Community Hospital and blood drives every two months at Mercer Health Community Medical Center in Celina.

Donna Kueterman spent 30 years with Mercer Health, retiring as Laboratory Director before joining Solvita. To learn more about sponsoring a Solvita blood drive Contact Donna at (937) 423-4611 or dkueterman@cbccts.org.

Schedule an appointment to donate with Solvita on the Donor Time app, by calling (937) 461-3220, or at www.donortime.com.

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Blood donation requirements:  Donors are required to provide a photo ID that includes their full name.  Past Solvita donors are also asked to bring their Solvita donor ID card.  Donors must be at least 17 years of age (16 years old with parental consent: form available at www.solvita.org or at the Dayton Donation Center and mobile blood drive locations), weigh a minimum of 110 pounds (you may have to weigh more depending on your height), and be in good physical health.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changes blood donor eligibility guidelines periodically.  Individuals with eligibility questions can email canidonate@solvita.org or call (937) 461-3220. Make an appointment at www.DonorTime.com.

Solvita is an independent, not-for-profit organization with the mission of taking life further and making a lasting impact on the world by providing lifesaving and life-enhancing blood products and tissue grafts.

As a regional blood center headquartered in Dayton, Ohio Solvita collects, processes, and provides blood products to partner hospitals and health centers within our 18-county service area of western Ohio and eastern Indiana and to select hospitals and blood centers outside the region.

As a global tissue center Solvita provides services to donor families, medical communities, recipients, OPOs, and community partners through recovery, processing, and distribution of tissue grafts. We are a national tissue network with locations in Dayton, Ohio (Corporate Office); Fort Worth, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Portland and Medford, Oregon; Toledo, Ohio; and Boise, Idaho. For more information visit www.Solvita.org.