Partners For Life - Registration
Brethren of Georgian South District,
Canadian Blood Services has created a link to assist with collecting blood donations within our District.
Please use the “Click Here” link below and follow the simple instructions. To register you will need your Donor Card number.
Anyone who does not have a donor card will be issued one by Canadian Blood Services following their first, or resumption of, donations.
Registration is available to ALL family and friends who participate in Georgian South blood donor clinics.
You are encouraged to have all those eligible to register at their earliest convenience.
The following link is pre-populated. Once registered, the system will go back and grab any donation(s) made so far this calendar year and add them to the District totals, and, will continue to track registered donors going forward.
When you have finished entering your details, click “Submit”. This is a one-time registration. Once registered, all past and future donations for the calendar year will automatically count towards the annual donation goal. Thank you for saving lives!
For more information please use the Contact Us form and we will forward your message to the Georgian South District Blood Donor Committee Chairman; W. Bro. Les Fraser
Making a difference: Canadian Blood Services Web-site link (information / find a clinic near you / book an appointment) https://blood.ca/en
To find the date and time of clinics near you click on the above link then: i) click on “find a donor center” ii) click on “advanced” iii) type in your “postal code” iv) fill in “date range”, and, “distance” v) click on “start booking” ~ then scroll down the list of clinics with locations.
There is also an app. for mobile phones. How to ~ 1) go to your “App Store”; search for “giveblood.ca”; 2) download the app; 3) complete the required details of name, address, CBS card number, etc.; From then on you can book / change appointments; complete the questionnaire prior to donating; use your phone as your donor card; inquire as to eligibility; report issues after a donation; etc.
In addition to the special clinics you can also donate blood at the Barrie Clinic:
231 Bayview Drive, Suite 100
Sun & Mon: closed
Tues & Thurs: 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Wed, Fri & Sat: 8:00 AM – Noon
Juice and snacks are always provided with the added bonus that on some of the late clinics pizza is served.
The Needs and Uses: A donation can touch so many lives.
What greater gift is there than the gift of life? That’s exactly what every blood donation delivers. Blood and blood products are a critical part of everyday medical care including major surgeries, medical procedures, cancer treatments and managing disease. Much of the blood that is transfused every year is done under emergency or trauma situations. Hundreds of thousands of people each year receive blood components or blood products following accidents, during surgery or for cancer treatments, burn therapy, hemophilia and other blood-related diseases.
A Heart Surgery requires up to 5 donors.
A car accident could require up to 50 donors.
Each treatment for a cancer patient can require up to 5 donors; a leukemia patient up to 8 donors – PER WEEK.
Every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. That someone could be a loved one, a friend, a co-worker – or even you. The benefits to others and the rewards to the donor can be enormous.
Some facts: The average amount of blood in one person is five litres or 10.5 pints
There are approximately 450 ml of blood in a unit
On average, 4.6 units of blood are required per patient
In Canada, the number of people diagnosed with cancer is increasing every year. We all know that cancer patients need blood or blood products to survive their treatments.
The number of transplants is increasing steadily. This includes kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, lung and bowel transplants – all of which are lengthy procedures requiring significant amounts of blood. So many individuals have improved their quality of life with hip and knee replacements.
As you can see, the need for blood and blood products is rapidly rising—and we need to increase the percentage of eligible Canadians who donate blood.
Types of Donations: Canadian Blood Services is responsible for recruiting blood and bone marrow donors, as well as collecting whole blood, plasma, and platelets at 41 permanent collection sites and more than 20,000 donor clinics annually.
Whole blood is comprised of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. Some donations are held and transfused as whole blood, others are processed to separate red blood cells and plasma.
All whole blood donations undergo leukoreduction, a process whereby white blood cells are removed. White blood cells often carry viruses and bacteria that can be detrimental to the recovery of the recipient. Some donors donate plasma through a process called plasmapheresis. The donor’s blood is processed through an apheresis machine that extracts only the plasma and returns the rest of the blood to the donor. Plasma may be transfused into a patient or further processed into other products. Platelets can be donated through a process called plateletpheresis. The donor’s blood is processed through an apheresis machine, much like in a plasma donation. In this case, only the platelets are collected and the rest of the blood is returned to the donor. In managing the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry (UBMDR), Canadian Blood Services also collects blood samples for donors who wish to join the Registry. Canadian Blood Services records the specific proteins that make an individual’s bone marrow unique. This information is used to match donors with patients who need bone marrow transplants.
Our History: Masonically speaking, our tradition of supporting and contributing to the blood supply in Canada is long. In 1941, while Junior Deacon of Electric Lodge No. 495 in Hamilton, Bro. William Hoyle was named chairman of a small committee of the Masters’ and Wardens’ Association in his district and charged with the promotion of the blood donation program. The idea attracted 105 Masons from the Hamilton area, who were each checked and grouped into their respective blood types, and were ready when called upon to replenish the supply of blood for a hospital in times of dire need. By 1942 the notion of a Masonic Blood Donor Program was put forward to and approved by the Grand Master, M. W. Bro. J. A. McRae. At its inception, the program was specifically intended for the benefit of any Brother or his immediate family, and then only by special request of the committee, as blood was at that time only available at a cost or by making arrangements to have it replaced. The service made it possible for a Brother Mason or his family to receive immediate care, without the worry of having to find donors to replace the existing supply. In fact, some instances in London, Ontario, suggest that some of the many members who joined the fraternity in the 1940’s and 1950’s may have done so (at least in part) in order to have access to this life-saving benefit of membership.
On May 23, 1944, the fledgling committee was able to respond to a real crisis in true Masonic fashion. In the early morning hours, a disastrous fire raged through the Moose Hall, injuring many. At 1:30 a.m. Bro. Hoyle was called by hospital staff to see if some of the members of his list could donate blood to assist in saving the lives of the victims of the fire. By 5 a.m. “more than 50 Masons gave blood” and provided lifesaving aid to the victims of that fire. Similar call lists were created in Ottawa, Toronto and London shortly thereafter.
In 1947, the Blood Transfusion Service of the Canadian Red Cross came into being. Its’ mandate was to collect and store blood and blood products and supply them to Canadians free of charge, thereby gradually replacing the Masonic Blood Donor Groups and their respective call lists. In those days, donors were asked to lay in full hospital beds while donating. After the donation, nurses would hand crank the back rest of the beds to an upright position and allow the donor to rest. As you can imagine, these heavy, awkward and cumbersome beds proved quite a challenge for mobile clinics of the day. It is well documented however, that many Masons in the London area would quite regularly volunteer their trucks and their time to transport the hospital beds for mobile clinics to places as far away as Grand Bend.
In order to “assist” with the recovery from the procedure in those days, it was also regular practice to give the donor a shot of rum (presumably due to it being derived from sugar cane), and sent on his or her way when fit to leave. Stories abound of telephone calls to Masons in the middle of the night, asking them to come in for specific recipients ranging from infants to accident victims. Each and every time, our fraternity has answered the call with the fervency and zeal that characterizes us in our respective communities as pillars of selfless charity.
Masonic involvement in the propagation of the virtue of saving lives through blood donations was formalized in 1958 by then Grand Master M. W. Bro. Harry L. Martyn when he created a special committee called “The Blood Donors’ Committee.” Its purpose is “to assist agencies working in this field and to keep identified with their wonderful work”. The committee is further tasked with ensuring that all Masons are aware of the important work of Canadian Blood Services and are encouraged to donate blood and blood products.
One does not need to look far to see that that tradition continues, strongly, throughout Georgian South District.