By Marike Gevers
Earlier this year we were approached by Gerhard Kitching. He is the owner of Sioux Spur at Glengarry Village Shopping Centre. Gerhard wanted to assist us by bringing in more blood donors, not just to the Glengarry’s Village Shopping Centre, where we host a regular blood donation clinic, but he wanted more Spur Franchises to be involved and truly make a difference. And so, after a few cups of coffee and a good brainstorming session we came up with a great campaign that would not only create awareness about blood donation but also encourage Spur employees and patrons to donate blood.
On Friday, 25 November, we hosted our first ‘Blood Donors with a Taste for Life’ campaign. 5 Spur branches were challenged to not only promote blood donation to their staff and patrons but also to donate the most number of units of blood at their respective blood donation clinic on the day. The branches that participated were Sioux Spur in Glengarry Village Shopping Centre, Silver Mountain Spur in Blue Route Mall, Cahokia Spur in Capegate Centre, Texas Spur in N1 City Mall and Topeka Spur in Kenilworth Centre. Staff and patrons were given a ballot flyer at their respective Spur and asked to complete and enter at the blood donation clinic where they went to donate, indicating which branch they represent.
Congratulations to Cahokia Spur in Capegate Centre for winning this challenge. Overall our Capegate blood donation centre had the best collection improvement on the day. The clinic usually collects an average of 27 units of blood, and on this day, we collected 40 units, of which 19 came from Spur employees and patrons. This is a 47.5% improvement in collections! They also welcome 7 new blood donors on the day. Overall, we saw an increase in attendance and units collected at our blood donation clinics, clearly showing our donors have a taste for life.
