Donated blood continues to be a precious commodity. But one local organization continues to do its part to make that situation much easier
A blood drive — the third since July — was hosted recently at Belleville American Legion Post 105 by the Sons of the American Legion (SAL) squadron in coordination with the New York Blood Center (NYBC)
The first two yielded the collection of 67 blood units, enough to help more than 200 patients.
At the most recent drive, which took place Feb. 22, an additional 32 units of blood were collected.
The coordinator from the Sons is Blood Drive Chairman Steve Donald, who became a member about a year ago.
Blood drives are an important way the American Legion fulfils its commitment to one of its four core pillars — National Security — which stands among their other pillars of Americanism, children and youth and veterans affairs, the post’s leadership says.
Community service is also an element of building a strong national security, and the American Legion’s blood donor initiatives may be traced to the day just after the attack on Pearl Harbor when veterans of the Great War organized drives.
The organization had even passed a resolution in May 1967 designating the week of Dec. 7 each year as “National American Legion Blood Donor Week,” in remembrance of the attack that sent the United States into World War II and gave birth to the program.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.