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Community Blood Center
Arcanum’s Steve
Schlechty makes 100th Donation
DAYTON, Ohio - Arcanum donor Stephen “Steve” Schlechty became a regular
donor at the Dayton Community Blood Center during his long career at
Wright Patterson Air Force Base. His niece Debra Williams is a
CBC phlebotomist and team leader, so when it came time to schedule his
milestone 100th lifetime donation on Feb. 2, he made sure Debra would
be there to handle the honors of the 100th needle stick.
Family is a familiar theme to Steve when he looks back on the journey
to his milestone donation. “My brother Charles had cancer and passed
away in 1966,” he recalled. “He needed some blood. Back then you could
say you were donating for a specific person.”
It was around that time that he began work in the civil service at
Wright-Patt. He continued to donate occasionally at mobile blood drives
in Greenville, but it was easiest to stop by the Dayton CBC Donor
Center after leaving the base. After 29 years in configuration
management he retired in 1992.
“I got a little off track,” he said, but with retirement “I got back on
my schedule.”
He still works part time and is active with the Greenville Masonic
Lodge. He supports CBC events in Darke County, and showed
up for CBC T-Shirt Day at the Great Darke County Fair last August
wearing 17 of his “favorite” CBC donor t-shirts. “I thought it would be
something different!” he said. “I was going to go for 25. I
stopped at 17, but I could have gotten more on. The best one is
the one with all the holes in it!”
His commitment to blood donations remains more important than ever.
“It’s helping other people who need blood,” said Steve, “and knowing
there is a need. A friend of mine was in the hospital and received two
units of blood a couple of weeks ago. I remember he said, ‘I haven’t
felt this good in months.’”
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