In The Community: Dusty’s Blood Drive

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For the Tucson Roadrunners, Wednesday was their first opportunity of the Summer to put on a community event with their fans in a Blood Drive with Vitalant. The event was held at the La Quinta in Tucson, a great partner of the organization with their parent company HSL Properties.

Mascot Dusty provided support and friendship as the day went along.

“What a great event, to see the turnout it was fantastic,” said Roadrunners Team President Bob Hoffman. “The Roadrunners are a friend to everyone here in Tucson and Southern Arizona.”

Roadrunners Team President Bob Hoffman gives blood Wednesday.

“This is absolutely fantastic,” said Vitalant’s Sue Thew. “It’s been a blast today, Dusty came over and entertained all of the donors. All of us at Vitalant are so grateful to partner with the Tucson Roadrunners. It’s the most critical week of the summer for the blood supply. It couldn’t be a more important time to partner with the Tucson Roadrunners for a community blood drive.”

For the Roadrunners, it’s the first of many events in Southern Arizona that they’re currently working on. “We’re looking to do more things in the community geared towards the trials that we’re facing right now,” said Hoffman. “Get some bottled water out, a masked campaign, we’ve got some great Roadrunners masks.”

Roadrunners Ticket Service Coordinator Anissa Lopez catches up with one of many Roadrunners fans in attendance.

Today’s donors also took part in another important initiative that will allow Vitalant to keep assisting patients. “There’s lots of benefits for donors and we hope that people will continue to donate blood in the Tucson area and through the end of the summer every single donor is going to get a test for Covid-19 antibodies,” said Thew.  “Those antibodies from people who have recovered from Covid-19 or have been exposed to Covid-19 and are not currently displaying any current symptoms. Those antibodies can help some of the most gravely ill patients in the hospital right now. And thanks to the Roadrunners, we’re having a great turnout today and we’re trying to identify donors who can continue to save lives not only in Arizona but around the country.”

Roadrunners fans can still get involved by visiting Vitalant.org and entering their zip code where they will see a list of current blood drives in the community.