The Riverhead community stepped up in a big way yesterday, answering the call for blood donations in the face of a critical shortage with a record-setting turnout for the Riverhead Community Blood Drive at the Riverhead Fire Department.
Yesterday’s blood drive collected 172 units, including segregated red blood cell donations.
That was a record for the twice-yearly blood drive that the Reichel family of Riverhead has been organizing and coordinating for nearly 40 years.
From Main Street merchants like Liz Strebel of Riverhead Diner and Grill and Nancy Kouris of Blue Duck Bakery Cafe to Riverhead Town officials, volunteer firefighters and other residents, people queued up to roll up their sleeves. Some firms let employees go early to donate, like the accounting firm of Markowitz Fenelon and Bank, which had seven staff members turn out to donate.
“The Riverhead community always comes together in times of need, and people right now need life-saving blood,” said Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, who donated red blood cells following yesterday afternoon’s town board meeting.
Segregated red blood cells are harvested with a special machine called an Alyx Component Collection System. The donor’s blood flows into the Alyx machine, which separates the blood’s components. Red blood cells are collected in a blood bag and the remaining components are returned to the donor, who also receives a small amount of sterile saline fluid to make up for the blood volume loss. The donation takes about twice as long — about 20-25 minutes — as a whole blood donation. It collects twice as many red blood cells as a whole blood donation and provides the most critically needed blood component.
“This community is awesome and this drive was fabulous,” said coordinator Lauren Reichel at the conclusion of the event, which took place from 1 to 7 p.m. at Riverhead Fire Department headquarters. The fire department has been opening its facilities to the drive since 2011.
Her husband’s parents, the late John and Barbara Reichel, were dedicated volunteers for the New York Blood Center who organized the blood drive in Riverhead for 30 years. John Reichel, an ex-captain and 56-year member of the Riverhead Fire Department, passed away in 2012.
The Riverhead Community Blood Drive was recognized with the New York Blood Center’s Diamond Award for 2015, given to the top donating sites in the state.
“We thank the community for answering our plea for help in this blood crisis,” Laurel Reichel said last night. “I’m grateful to our faithful donors and to the new friends we just met,” she said.
John and Barbara Reichel’s family has carried the baton since 2008, following Barbara’s death in 2007.
You could say it’s in their blood.
“Some people inherit property, we inherited a blood drive,” joked their granddaughter Macy Reichel yesterday.
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