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Blood donors
have fun ‘bummin’ at fair
GREENVILLE, Ohio – “Got that one…. Got that one… ah, I like that one!”
There may be prize livestock to judge and ice cold crushies to choose
at the annual Great Darke County Fair, but for blood donors on
Community Blood Center (CBC) “T-shirt Day” it’s a treasure hunt for the
elusive t-shirt design you don’t yet own.
CBC Darke Co. account representative Dana Puterbaugh and her citizen
advisory board volunteers worked the “T-Shirt Day” booth under the hot
afternoon sun Wednesday, Aug. 20. Any donor who arrived at the booth
wearing their favorite CBC t-shirt could draw a chip and choose from a
heaping pile of “retired” t-shirts, leftover from previous blood drive
campaigns.
They could also enter a drawing to win a quilt, lovingly stitched
together by donor Tammy Pugh from some vintage CBC blood drive t-shirts.
“Got that one, got that one… ah! I like chocolate,” said Union City, OH
donor Patty Hunt, who grabbed a Hershey chocolate brown t-shirt with
the slogan “How Sweet It is to Save a Life!” “I’ve been donating for a
couple of years now and I’ve got five or six of these,” she said of her
hunt through the t-shirts before finding a keeper.
Patty donates at CBC mobile blood drives held at Greenville Technology
Inc. and she was soon joined by a group of friends from GTI.
Donating together at work is a tradition for them, and so is enjoying
the fair. “I’m a ‘fair bum’ said Patty. “I take the whole week off!”
“We come every year,” said Jackie Magee, who wore a “Keep Calm &
Carry On Saving Lives” t-shirt to the fair, and chose the same
chocolate t-shirt as Patty. Jackie did even better at last year’s
“T-Shirt Day” when she won the drawing for a pair of Kings Island
tickets.
“They give us time to donate,” their friend Dot Ellis said about the
GTI blood drives. “Afterwards you get your juice and cookies and you go
back to work, or go home, whatever you’re ready to do.”
Summer weather definitely returned in time for the fair, with
temperatures in the high 80’s and plenty of visitors wearing broad hats
and sunglasses with their donor t-shirts. Picking a t-shirt is
one of dozens of choices for fairgoers. Fried cakes, grilled
sandwiches, and kegs of root beer abound. The midway rides spin,
while a live elephant gets ready to make the rounds with paying
passengers on his back. Dairy cows relax on beds of hay in the
luxurious new dairy barn, retirees line dance in front of the gazebo,
kids race around the fairgrounds enjoying the last freedom of summer,
and the grandstand gets ready for the night’s tractor pull and the
Veterans Parade.
Back at the CBC T-Shirt booth, Piqua donor Sarah Smith wore an American
flag donor t-shirt and for her free t-shirt chose the October Breast
Cancer Awareness “I Fight Cancer, I Give Blood” pink ribbon
design. “I have an aunt that died from breast cancer she said.
“My daughter Katelynn is 15. She remembers her Aunt Trix.
Every time she sees a pink ribbon she has to have it.”
Pink is clearly Sarah and Katelynn’s choice. The “I Fight Cancer”
t-shirt was Dana’s choice on T-Shirt Day too. Even in the rainbow
of CBC t-shirt colors, the electric kaleidoscope of lights on the
midway, and all the candy box of attractions at the Great Darke County
Fair… one color can sometimes stand out from all the rest.
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