United Blood Services and the city of Tempe partnered this week to hold a Valley-wide blood-donation tribute to honor fallen emergency responders in New York during the week of Sept. 11.
UBS hopes to collect 411 pints of blood, one in honor of each of the 411 emergency first-responders who died when the World Trade Center towers fell in 2001. The blood drive began Monday and ends Saturday.
Rich Damante, a former firefighter for the state of New York, helped to organize this year’s expanded drive.
“There were people I knew in those buildings,” Damante said. “It sparked something in me to give back.”
Damante retired from the force in 1989 and became a recruiter for UBS the following year.
UBS has been in partnership with the Tempe City Council for three years, though this is the first year the project has expanded to include the entire Valley.
Tempe police and fire departments kicked off the donation drive last Thursday, eager to make the first contributions to the locally organized tribute.
“[The stations] donated the first 12 pints of blood,” said Sue Thew, UBS spokeswoman.
Since Monday — with mobile donor centers in El Mirage, Salt River, Maricopa, Sun City West and Surprise — 103 pints have been donated toward the goal.
Thew said she expects most donations to come in on Sept. 11, and she encouraged Valley residents to donate toward the goal.
“We really hope ASU students will come out to contribute to a good cause,” Thew said. All blood donors will receive a commemorative patriotic T-shirt.
Lindsey Mayer, a political science senior, first donated blood her freshman year of college.
“It’s hard to ignore a big bus, especially when it says ‘Save Lives’ on the side,” she said.
Since then Mayer has coordinated several ASU blood drives as the public relations officer for the Barrett Honors College Council.
“I think 411 pints is a lofty goal, but it’s realizable,” she said. “[Donating blood] is just a little effort, and it has such a huge benefit.”
Damante said this is the first year he is really proud of the drive and its turnout. Through his work at UBS, he said he has been inspired to return to the field as a firefighter.
“When I watched [Sept. 11 coverage] on TV, it wasn’t the sight that got to me, but the sound. If you listen to the footage, you will hear the chirping noises of the alarm that’s activated when a firefighter is down. I knew what that sound meant,” he said in a press release.
Damante is scheduled to graduate from a local fire-training academy this Saturday as the oldest recruit in his class. He turned 50 Wednesday.
“I set a goal for myself to get back to fighting fires before I was 50,” he said. “It’s in my blood. I just loved being a firefighter.”
Reach the reporter at tessa.muggeridge@asu.edu.
