BEDFORD – The Knights of Columbus will host a Red Cross Blood Drive on Thursday, February 1, 2024, from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. at The Knights of Columbus Hall at 2202 M Street in Bedford.
Please support the Knights of Columbus and the Red Cross by participating in this life-saving event.
Both Pre-registration and walk-in are welcome.
The Knights of Columbus was the first national organization to have a blood donor program. Now, they collect more than 400,000 pints of blood each year.
By being the first national organization to sponsor a donor program, the Knights of Columbus became a pioneer in blood donation.
In 1938, two years before the Red Cross’s wartime blood drive, Knights of Columbus councils worked with local hospitals to organize blood drives in centers set up by Knights.
The first mention in Columbia magazine’s “Knights in Action” column came in December 1938 when Minneapolis Knights demonstrated “true fraternal spirit” when a Knight’s son needed blood transfusions for a rare blood disease.
In Sante Fe, N.M., Grand Knight Mony Pesenti of Council 1707 gave a transfusion to a poor Mexican woman who had given birth to a baby during the middle of the night, according to the January 1939 edition of Columbia. The sisters at the hospital reported that the mother “rallied,” and she and her baby were “alive and well.” As a local Sante Fe newspaper wrote, “The local Knights of Columbus have, in offering theirs free of charge where necessary, set a precedent other organizations and cities might follow. They give their blood that others might live.”
By the end of 1939, more than 400 councils had blood donor groups.
During World War II, councils ramped up blood drives, joining the Red Cross campaign for 100,000 blood donations to benefit soldiers and air raid victims. Bishop Dollard Council 1942 in New Brunswick, Canada, was the first local unit to volunteer to aid the Red Cross blood donor service.
Today, Knights of Columbus blood drives collect more than 400,000 pints of blood annually.
Information: Knights of Columbus News Bureau
