Joe Engel: Donating Blood to Make a Difference

by Tom Rademacher, former columnist for the Grand Rapids Press

Joe Engel says he gives blood – 18 gallons to date – because he was talked into it by a former girlfriend he’d met while in college. But the more time you spend with him, one wonders if the reason isn’t just as closely tied to a lesson in grace that he learned during the same period in his life – inside a grimy service station on a cold winter’s night.

Nearly 40 years have passed, but Joe can still see his former boss, John Devine, performing an act of compassion that completely belied the gruff Irishman’s rugged exterior.

A family had limped their car into Devine’s Enco service station – long gone now – on a busy street corner in southeast Grand Rapids.

Click to read more ...

Mariah Sika – Stem Cell Donor

This year 21-year-old Mariah Sika didn't mind staying indoors on a beautiful late-September day; she was busy saving a life. Four years after joining the National Marrow Donor Program's (NMDP) Be The Match Registry®, the Traverse City, Michigan native was told she was a potential bone marrow match for a woman she has never met.

Click to read more ...

Kevin Marion - Stem Cell Donor

Kevin Marion, 29 of Rochester, who donated peripheral blood stem cells on November 22, became Michigan Blood's 500th donor. Michigan Blood, as part of the National Marrow Donor Program's Be the Match Registry, recruits potential marrow donors for patients across the country and around the world. Kevin's patient is a 57-year-old man who lives abroad. 

Click to read more ...

Dick Benjamin - 35 Gallon Donor

Dick Benjamin, 62, from Holland, started donating blood when he was a teenager. In May of 2011, he hit the 35 gallon mark, making Dick one of Michigan Blood's top donors. “I’m not a very talented person, but the Lord gave me this gift,” said Dick. “I once lost someone very near and dear to me and I had extra time with him because of blood donors.”

Click to read more ...

Tom Baird - 30 Gallon Blood Donor

“I believe that I’m now the second-highest gallon level donor in this region [Great Lakes Bay], the highest being Eldon Hall,” said Tom Baird of Bay City, MI, who recently reached the 30 gallon mark. “I donated my first pint to Michigan Blood on 12/28/1973 and have [been donating regularly] ever since. I have every donor card since the first donation.”

Click to read more ...