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Left: Glenna Kerns Grand Prize Winner, Right: Donors getting signed up for Door Prizes at the Darke County Fair |
The Darke County fairground is a busy place during the Aug. 16 through Aug. 24 run of the fair, now in its 157th year. (Some like to call it “The Greatest County Fair on Earth” and you are hard pressed to find anyone to disagree).
Donors had to find their way to the CBC tent near Gate 2 to register for the drawings, but they had a good landmark to guide their way. CBC Education Specialist Cris Pickle arrived for T-Shirt day behind the wheel of “The LAB” mobile blood science classroom. Kids of all ages toured the LAB to learn fun facts about blood, see some creative and colorful hands-on illustrations about how the circulatory system works, and goof off in front of the fun house mirrors!
It was a also a good place to learn about fire safety, thanks to the Township of Greenville Fire Department, which shared its booth with CBC for T-Shirt Day.
Glenna Kerns of Bradford can now plan her Labor Day cook-out with a new feature after winning the grand prize of a Lifetime Picnic Table. She of course wore a favorite CBC t-shirt, and Glenna has a lot to choose from. She is a regular at Darke County blood drives with 91 lifetime donations.
Another prize-worthy visit came from Jesse Cassell, Darke County's oldest blood donor at age 91. He posed for his t-shirt picture with friend Iris Bolen and CBC Darke County Rep. Dana Puterbaugh. “He’s 91 years young,” Dana said.
Dana again set a goal of 200 donors visiting the fair wearing CBC t-shirts. Donors responded with a grand total of 203 visiting the fair in CBC t-shirts. (Greenville had the most representation with 89, followed by Arcanum with 19, New Madison and Versailles with 14 each and Ansonia with 10). It helped the total to have donors arriving in groups, like the daughter and mother team of Tracy Dixon and Jackie Henry, and the crowd from Greenville Technology, Inc. that included Dot Ellis, Debra Miller, Patty Hunt and Jackie Magee.
A prize-worthy appearance came from the husband and wife team of Clara and Ivan Patterson. Ivan arrived at the CBC tent wearing the oldest t-shirt of the day, an apheresis donor “Life Leader” team t-shirt that dated back to June 1992. Clara’s was much more recent. She wore her “Iron Donor” t-shirt from May 2013 for a combination of the old and the new. “We do things together!” she said.