TBL blood drive met 107 per cent of its goal

Expectations low making results high

The Monday, November 27 blood drive at the TBL Community Centre had organizer Reg Gauthier on tender hooks through most of the day. In the end, his concerns were allayed when the 61st person passed through the door to surpass the anticipated goal of 60 donors. The end result reflected almost 107 per cent of Gauthier’s goal.

“We actually ended up with 71 people coming to give with seven who were not permitted to donate and leaving us with four more people than our goal. It picked up quite a bit near the end of the day. The operation that ran from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. required a team of eight from Hema-quebec as well as 16 local volunteers.

Although he was thrilled with the outcome and shouted out a heartfelt appreciation to all donors and volunteers who participated, Gauthier did express a certain level of disappointment with

Rob Paterson, also a member of the Knowlton Literary Association and involved with Tales for Tots says that with family demands and dynamics evolving into less traditional framework, there is less time for the little children to be with their parents. “Daycares are the sweet spot. It is here that it will be possible to set the best conditions for learning to read.” He said that readiness is the key to learning and the conditions of readiness derive from self-confidence, self-esteem, security within the environment, acceptance of others, amongst many other components. He says that, “The pathways that have to be set up so that a child learns to read with ease and for pleasure are set by physical affection — touch, a warm and safe environment, tone of voice and by hearing lots of words.” Working against the learning process are fear and anxiety.

Erika Cousens is in charge of educational and technical support services at the CPE la Passerelle des Mousses and is always looking for ways to support the development of reading skills. That’s why she and her colleagues instituted the Croque-livre program earlier this year and is open to the idea of offering equine assisted learning services from “Le pays du Hopie.”

“We are very pleased with the success of the Croque-livre project. Many families who attend the CPE use it on a daily basis.” Cousens, Crematy, and Tales for Tots representatives will be meeting this week to discuss logistics regarding the proposed equine assisted reading program.

Cousens says that the CPE is currently collecting books and money for the “Gift of Reading” program that works to bring new books to underprivileged children and families throughout Quebec. For more information on this specific program please visit https://www.fondationalphabetisation.org/nosprogrammes/lecture-en-cadeau/.

the routinely low turnout from citizens of his municipality that boasts a population of just over 5,600 people. He knows that the poor weather and road conditions must have played into the formula, but he wants to know how more people can be encouraged to give. Being a first responder, he is acutely aware of the need to supply the blood banks in hospitals.

Stats Canada Census 2011 reveals that there are 4,850 citizens over 15 years of age living in the municipality. Seniors over 65 years old represent about 25 per cent of the population. Because of the government report that delineates the breakdown of ages into incongruent categories, for this purpose it is impossible to have an accurate number of citizens who would be eligible to donate blood, but Gauthier believes that there could be close to 3,000 individuals over 18, including healthy seniors who would be eligible to give blood. Based on that approximation this most recent event resulted in a disappointing 2 per cent of TBL’S population who could be eligible donors. “When the hospital blood banks are so low, you’d think we could do better,” said Gauthier who intimately knows the relevance of the need.

Gauthier said that so many seniors think that they can no longer give blood when in fact, if they are healthy and have a written consent from their family doctors, they can. To know more about eligibility, Hema Quebec has outlined the details on its website. http://www.hema-quebec.qc.ca/index.en.html.