I was going to post this next section on Social Media websites but it seems I’m really verbose with my narratives. Here is what I was going to post with my social media and then following is the K4 Men’s group informational section.

Social Media:
One of my family matriarchs, Patty, recently challenged me by suggesting that my generation doesn’t really put forth much effort to change the current state of the United States or the world. She mentioned how when she was growing up they often protested, showed up to vote, were involved in community planning, fought against “the man”. Robert Putnam also provides additional supporting evidence in his book and study, Bowling Alone. I have also caught a glimpse of it after recently starting up a virtual blood drive – as of 1/2/2021, 3 of 59 viewers pledged to donate with the Red Cross. These viewers are close friends, family, and friends of those people. People I thought would be most likely to sign up. Maybe she’s right.

In February, I will donate my 70th life time pint. My goal is to have 70 people match my 70 pints as a demonstration that community is more powerful than a single individual. I’ve been donating for about 16 years to reach this milestone. A community could match that within 2 months, and multiply that by 6 (number of allowed individual whole blood donations per a year for a person) to 420 pints. These 420 pints have the potential to save 1,260 lives.

If you wouldn’t like to, you could also provide feedback. One of my friends didn’t like that these organizations bought and sold the donated blood products. I respect that and think these organizations should do more to address this concern.

So if you’d like to pledge, follow these links:

For Red Cross, I know they are in NY, NC, and CA:

K4 Men’s Group Virtual Blood Drive

For Vitalant, I know they are in NV:
https://learn.vitalant.org/LP=148?drive_code=N1K4M&division=WEST%26%region=RNO

If you are in another state and wish to donate and neither Red Cross or Vitalant are near by, give me a heads up and I’ll see what we can do.

If you would like to learn about blood, I encourage you to read the book Nine Pints A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George. It is a very interesting read, a biography-type book. We still use leeches in modern medicine!

K4 Cohort #2 Mission:
Give from the heart this coming Valentine’s Day. As an act of service for the greater good, please donate blood to meet the K4 Men’s Group goal of 70 pints for Valentine’s Day 2021. The 70 pint goal is broken down into two groups – 35 K4 member participants plus 35 volunteers brought along with the K4 donors. If 70 pints is reached, I will donate $500 to Philip’s preferred charity.

Background and Vision:
Over the last 16 years I, Geoff Will, son of Alan Will, donated 69 pints of blood to close out 2020. This journey started in college after my good friend PJ volunteered me to donate at the American Red Cross drive on campus. In high school I was in a car accident and required donor blood. I figured this was a way to give back.

I’ve kept up with it ever since, made sure to fit the donation into my schedule roughly every 2 months (56-60 days). My February 2021 donation will be my 70th. I have never passed out or had a bad experience in any of the donations.

My goal is to demonstrate the power of teamwork while also tapping into the skills learned through K4 course work. If we can reach the K4 goal, it will achieve 16 years of an individual’s work within one donation window. That is impressive. Some day I would like these blood organizations to provide full panel health diagnostics to donors. Right now, you may receive some basic data but the potential for monitoring a donor’s health is profound if we were to tap into this opportunity.