Volunteer Ministers of Tampa Bay Host Successful Event For Florida Blood Services

CLEARWATER, FL, June 27, 2012 (Press-News.org) This past weekend, the Volunteer Ministers of the Church of Scientology held a successful blood drive in Clearwater, bringing in 56 donations, which can save up to 168 lives over the summer holidays.

Summer is a critical time for Florida Blood Services, as due to family vacations and school being out, the number of donations drop, but the demand increases. As an example, out of all the holidays celebrated in the United States, there are more auto accidents and fatalities on the Fourth of July than any other holiday.

"The donations collected at this weekend's drive will help victims of traumatic injuries," said Pat Harney, the Public Affairs Director for the Church of Scientology, "as well as help any one of the people who need transfusions, who are recovering from chemotherapy, who are newborn or who are receiving surgery."

Per the Florida Blood Services website, once collected, each unit is tested and the components - red blood cells, platelets, plasma - can be separated out and used to treat patients with different needs. Therefore, one pint can save up to three lives.

The Volunteer Ministers and the Church of Scientology have been holding blood drives several times a year for nearly two decades now. But this is just one of the activities that the Volunteer Ministers are involved in.

"There are more 200,000 Volunteer Ministers - or VMs - worldwide," said Harney. "They have worked at 161 disaster sites since the VMs were founded 30 years ago."
But disasters aren't the only call to action that the VMs follow, added Judy Fagerman, who is in charge of the Volunteer Ministers of Tampa Bay. A full-time staff member at the Church of Scientology of Tampa, Fagerman says that she has seen VMs help children improve their schoolwork, help get people back into communication with each other and help people overcome ups and downs in their lives.

"The Volunteer Ministers use basic Scientology tools developed by L. Ron Hubbard to help people when they seek it," said Fagerman, "and you don't have to be a Scientologist to benefit from it."

"We are very proud of our partnership with Florida Blood Services," added Fagerman. "They have the daunting task of keeping up the supply for blood in this area with a constant demand, it is pretty amazing what they accomplish."

Those interested in finding out more about blood donations and how they can help Florida Blood Services, please go to http://www.fbsblood.org.

For more information about the Volunteer Ministers, go on line to http://www.volunteerministers.org.