From the Chairman

August 2022

First, I would like to thank Commander Butts for giving me the opportunity to continue serving this great department as your Blood Donor Chair. I look forward to another great year under her leadership.

I’d like to thank our immediate Past Commander Jerry Brandt for the opportunity he gave me last year to serve as the Blood Donor Chair. I learned a lot.

As a department we made a difference in many communities and in many lives. Here’s what was reported last year (These numbers only reflect 85 posts, which is about 30% reporting):

2,227 pints donated
1,682 donors reported
334 drives held

We have almost 300 posts in the department, imagine the numbers more post reported their numbers as well.

I’d like to congratulate Post 90 (13th District) for winning the Margaret Skaggs Award and Post 348 (12th District) for winning the runner up award. Both did an excellent job. I would like to add that we only had about a 10% award nomination rating from posts. I hope this year more posts will submit their paperwork. I would like to see at least a 20% award nomination rating.

I have already been to a post blood drive this past month. If your post is hosting a blood drive, please send me an email at blooddonor@floridalegion.org to let me know and I will try and come to the event.

Remember that this is a program that usually involves very little work. Normally, the post just needs to reach out to their local blood bank to schedule a drive at their location. One thing that I usually tell people is that when doing so, try and schedule it during an event to try and increase the possible number of donors.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 239-785-8282.

Brian “Taz” Gehling
Blood Donation Chair
blooddonor@legionmail.org