Letter to the Editor

Your view: A real gift

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

The Christmas presents have all been unwrapped with the parties and mistletoe only a memory away - you may feel you are given out - yet there are some who keep giving!

Long after the season to give has ended there is more than ever a gift that truly keeps on giving. The "gift of life" is the gift that was once again given at our Sikeston Community blood drive on December 29th.

We would like to thank the First United Methodist Church of Sikeston for so generously donating their Church to host the drive! The Sikeston Rotary Club continues to sponsor the Red Cross and we couldn't do it with out them! Thank you Sikeston High School students for coming out on your vacation to give blood and volunteer. You are our future and that gives us all hope!

On behalf of the American Red Cross and the lives you have saved we would most of all like to give our heart felt thanks to the donors - who are the silent heroes and who exemplify the spirit of giving!

The holiday season is our most difficult time, with so many needs for blood yet so few people willing to sacrifice to give the one gift that can't be bought! Still they came! They gave themselves, so someone they would never know, could keep on experiencing the precious gift of life! How can we express "thank you" for a gift like that? There are no words but our mission remains the same - to do our best to be sure blood is on the shelves to provide you what you have given!

If you have never given blood I challenge you to try it-you will never be the same. As a great Sikeston High School Science teacher explained, "it just puts an extra bounce in your step!"

Step up to the plate, you may just find their are more gifts still to be given and opened straight from the heart!

You may just find you still have more to give and receive!

Freida Cardwell

American Red Cross