Caring Is Sharing! Give Blood On Valentine's Day

Come celebrate Valentine's Day at the Red Cross!

Do you love chocolate? All presenting donors at our Clark County Donor Center on this special day will receive a small box of chocolates from Russell Stover. There will also be drawings held for other chocolate goodies throughout the blood drive.

You can also give from the heart this Valentine's Day at our Bend Donor Center! Bring a friend to donate blood at the Bend Donor Center during this week, February 13 - 17 and both presenting donors will receive an American Red Cross water bottle*.

*Presenting donors will fill out a form with name and number to receive their water bottles. Donors do not need to present to donate at the same time.

Schedule your appointment now or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

Rally For The Big Game With Us!

In anticipation of the biggest football day of the season, the American Red Cross Clark County Donor Center's drive this Thursday, February 2nd from 11AM-5PM is football-themed!

Presenting donors are encouraged to have fun and bring friends! Sport enthusiasts encouraged. There will be a drawing for giveaways from Fred Meyers, Butcher Boys, Cottman Transmission, and Kazoozdles (children's toys). To schedule an appointment, please call (360) 989-2932. The Clark County Donor Center wants to thank you for your continuous support and commitment!

Graphic courtesy of super-bowlnews.blogspot.com

The Sandbag Preacher

There was a great story in the O on Friday by Amanda Waldroupe ( photo by Amanda Waldroupe, special to The Oregonian) on my buddy Les Miller with the USACE (look it up). I guess he never really grew up... lucky guy:

They call Les Miller the sandbag preacher. The Army Corps of Engineers' flood preparedness program manager in Portland earned the nickname for his years-long determination to perfect something that seems very simple -- making sandbags, the basic building block of flood control.

Miller can churn out sandbag math like a calculator. To fill 2,000 sandbags in two hours for a 2-foot-high, 200-foot-long sandbag wall, you'll need about 4,500 people, he says. "We know we're not going to get that many people" during an emergency, Miller said during a hands-on class in Vancouver last week. That's what makes it so important for flood-response volunteers to work as efficiently and quickly as possible.

The class drew almost 20 members from Clark County's Citizen Emergency Response Teams(CERT), a volunteer organization trained in disaster preparedness and response. An Eagle Scout candidate accompanying his mother, a CERT member and a firefighter also attended.

The rest of the story can be found at OregonLive.com. Oh, and if you think that a 100 year flood happens only once every 100 years, I have some property owned by the Rainbow Ponies in Candyland that I'd like to sell you...