We had a crazy September just with our son's Michael's attempt to do his Eagle Scout Project. Michael is only 13 years old and so he was looked at with a little scepticism when he applied to do an Eagle Scout Project. He decided that he wanted to run a blood drive. These can be very hard to do because you really rely on people coming in on the day of the event. It really all comes down to that.

Well, the scout leader at the scout office said that the scout leaders were trying to get away from blood drives because they didn't feel that the boys were really learning to apply their leadership skills in doing that. Michael stuck to his guns and promised to get 100 pints of blood in a 4 hour period on the designated day! That, in my mind, would take a miracle.

So for the entire month or so before the even, Michael coordinated with a supervisor at UBS. We put up about 150 posters all over the area around the church where we were going to have the blood drive, including shopping centers, schools and on neighborhood corners. Michael had a group of friends call to remind people about coming and then those same friends showed up on the day of the blood drive and cheered at people driving by to see if they could come in, too.

We found out that the supervisor didn't believe that we'd be able to bring 100 pints in, so she staffed for only 50. We realized this about 2 hours into the drive. I just about cried for Michael. The head phlebotomist was furious because we were getting enough people in to accomplish 100 pints and the phlebotomists were wore out with the amount of people. Some people waited for 3 hours to give blood. Others couldn't give blood for unforseen reasons.

When the blood drive was over, the head phlebotomist told us that it looked like Michael had had 99 pints of blood come in with several partials. We were disappointed that it wasn't 100 but relieved that it was that close.

In the end 2 more people gave blood, so it was official.

What team work from everyone who was involved. Michael was so happy!

He finally turned in all of his paperwork and had his board of review so we are happily planning his court of honor for March 28th!!

For Mark and I, this is our last Eagle Scout. What a challenge it is for the boys. We are very proud of them all.