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Celebrating A 100-Gallon Donor

    “We make a living by what we get.  We make a life by what we give.” - Winston Churchill

    Bob Hartman has impacted nearly 2,500 lives since the 1990s when he began a regimen of donating blood.  The Umatilla resident and stalwart donor passed a milestone last week, when he crossed the 100-gallon mark.  By OneBlood’s estimation, Hartman has supported 2,403 lives so far.
    Hartman has been a faithful donor since another Umatilla resident, Lowell Collins, got him started back in the 1990s.  Collins has donated over 170 gallons during his lifetime, according to Hartman.
    “Lowell was doing blood drives at the Methodist church, and got me started,” Hartman said this week.  “I have been donating ever since, except for around 1998, when I had to sit out when I had cancer.  You have to be cancer-free for five years to start back up.”
    Hartman goes weekly to donate, except for when he bumps up against mandatory pauses built into the donation protocols.  A platelet donor, he is known to spend 2-3 hours at OneBlood in Leesburg to fully undergo the process of having blood withdrawn, platelets removed, and plasma returned to the body. Every so often, he does a ‘straight’ blood donation.
    In all, Hartman has logged 801 donations to date, with plans to keep going.  His goal?  To donate another 50 gallons.
    At a 6-gallon per year rate, he is looking at more than eight years of donations ahead.
    “It’s all worthwhile,” he says of the time taken to make the donations, and he encourages others to consider giving the next time they see a donation bus.
    “They always need more,” he says, noting that he receives notices within a few days of each donation telling him where his blood was used. Especially the platelets, which go to support cancer patients and children in need. “They could probably use ten times the amount of platelets they get.”