A proclamation recognizing January as Denver Blood Donor Month, recognizing Vitalant for its Lifesaving Work, and announcing the 2022 Southeast Denver Blood, Platelet & Plasma Donation Drive.
Thank you, sir. All right. Well, thank you, Counsel Pro Tem Torres, for sponsoring that very important proclamation. And we've got a second proclamation. Council Member Sawyer, will you please read Proclamation 20 2-0025, please? Absolutely. Thank you, Madam President. Proclamation 20 2-0025 Recognizing January as Denver Blood Donor Month, recognizing vitalant for its lifesaving work and announcing the 2022 Southeast Denver blood placement, platelet and plasma donation drive. Whereas the need for volunteer blood, platelet and plasma donations is constant to meet everyday patient needs for traumas, surgeries, cancer treatments and more. And. Whereas, Vitalant, the nation's largest independent nonprofit blood service provider, is exclusively focused on providing lifesaving blood and comprehensive transfusion medicine services for about 900 hospitals and their patients across the U.S.. And. WHEREAS, millions of people in communities throughout the country depend on generous volunteer blood donors and by talents dedicated team to make sure lifesaving blood is available when and where it is needed. And. Whereas, each year in the U.S., approximately 735,000 volunteer donors give about 1.4 million blood 344,000 platelet and 180,000 plasma donations, which are processed into more than 2.1 million blood components for patients in need. And. Whereas, currently, all blood types are needed, especially type O blood donations, type O-negative. Blood is the universal blood type. Er, doctors reach for it first to help stabilize patients before their blood type is known. And. Whereas, blood donations come solely from generous volunteer donors and cannot be replicated in a lab. And. Whereas, the majority of the population is eligible to donate, but only about 3% actually do. And. WHEREAS, the month of January is recognized as National Blood Donor Month and a time to encourage and recognize volunteer blood donors. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the city, by the Council of the City and County of Denver, Section one, that the Council of the City and County of Denver hereby recognizes by talent for its lifesaving work. Section two that the Denver City Council shares in the efforts to raise awareness about ongoing need and hereby joins in the national celebration by proclaiming January 2022 as Denver Blood Donor Month in Section three that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall affixed the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and then a copy be transmitted to by talent. Thank you to Councilmember Sawyer. Your motion to adopt. Hang on. I got to pull my script back up here. I move the proclamation 22 zero 0 to 5 be adopted. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded. Comments by members of Council. Councilmember Sawyer. Thank you, Madam President. We're proud to have a tenants main Colorado campus located in District five, just north of Lowry's Great Lawn, and will be hosting the second annual Southeast. Denver Gives Blood Drive this month. I also want to give a huge shout out to the residents who've already pledged to donate over the next month. I'm sure, as you can hear in my voice, I've got COVID and I'm looking forward to donating myself so that I can donate some convalescent plasma as well. Our goal is to reach 75 donations by January 31st, which would save approximately 225 lives. And if that alone doesn't convince people to participate. Each blood donation is checked for COVID antibodies. So consider it a free antibody test as well. The need for blood has continued for childbirth, cancer treatments, essential medical procedures, traumas, and also everyday emergencies. But as I said in the proclamation, donors of all blood types are needed, but especially those with type O and because convalescent plasma type O is the most in-demand blood type helping patients that are facing life threatening conditions and emergencies every day. O-negative can be transfused to anyone, and O-positive is also especially needed because it is the most transfused blood type. COVID plasma, also known as convalescent plasma, is collected from those who are recovering from COVID 19 and contains antibodies that can be used to treat patients with active and severe COVID 19 cases, which gives them an extra boost to fight the illness. So even those who haven't been diagnosed with COVID can help because when donors give blood or platelets, they're informed of their antibody status. And if positive by talent produces that convalescent plasma donation, there are a lot of people out there who don't even know that they had COVID because there are so many asymptomatic cases. So just want to give a shout out to everyone. Thank you again. If you have already signed up to donate, you can schedule an appointment at by talent dot org or you can call 87725 vital vital l8772584825. And you can email our council office at Denver Council five at Denver golf dot org for more information and look on our social for the blood drive pledge link. So that's it. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilmember Sawyer. Next up, we have Councilmember Herndon. Thank you, Madam President. I want to thank Councilwoman Sawyer for. Bringing forward this proclamation. I try to give blood regularly. I gave blood today at Children's Hospital because it's something that we should be doing and we should never have a shortage of blood because most people are eligible to donate. And I was in at 1230 and I was out about an hour later. And so I want to encourage everybody to do that. I had conversations with the District 18 today about possibly doing something in northeast Denver because it is something that I care passionately about. So thank you, Councilman Sawyer, Councilman Sawyer, for doing this. And I would encourage all those to do it in and out. And it literally saves lives. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilmember Herndon, and happy to support this important proclamation tonight as well. Madam Secretary, roll call. Sawyer. I see tobacco. I. Clarke. I. Flynn. I. Herndon, i. I. Cashman. Ortega. I. Sandoval. I. Torres. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary closed the voting and announced the results. 11 911 IES Proclamation 20 2-0 0 to 5 has been adopted. Council member Sawyer will start the five minute timer and I believe we've got two individuals who are joining us online, Brook Way and or Brittany Calvert for the acceptance. Hi. Yeah. Why don't you go ahead? Thank you. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you so much for having my talent join you tonight. We are very honored to have this proclamation and have National Blood Donor Month recognized in Colorado and specifically in Denver. We just came out of our holiday season and that's one of the most difficult times for us. People are spending time with their families. They're traveling, donating blood is not at the top of their minds, however. And that's why we want people to remember donating blood throughout the year and in January for National Blood Donor Month. So thank you so much to Councilwoman Sawyer for supporting this and hosting this blood drive all month long in District five. And thank you to Chris for also donating today. It's so lovely to hear that. And we really appreciate regular donors. And if anyone hasn't donated, please give it a try. It's very easy, like Chris said. But we are still seeing the impact of COVID 19, and we've had to cancel hundreds of blood drives this year alone and and in 2022 because of COVID 19. And we're trying to make up for those lost blood drives, meaning thousands of uncollected units to help patients who really depend on transfusions for so many different reasons. Cancer patients need platelets, and there are so many other patients who need all types of blood. So we're really, really honored to be joining you this evening. And we want to make sure that, you know how grateful we are for your support. It's community partners like you that really remind our Colorado community to head to a donation center, blood drive and give back. Because every 2 seconds someone needs blood and there's no substitute for it. So I don't have five missions to talk about, but we really appreciate everything you guys do. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we missed you introducing yourself at the beginning of your comments, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself for the public record. Yes. I'm Rick Way. I'm the communications manager at my time. Very good. Thank you. And thank you for the work that you do. And to Councilmember Sawyer for sponsoring this proclamation. All right. We're going to go ahead and move on in the agenda. Madam Secretary, would you please read the bills for introduction.