PENHOLD - The Town of Penhold is challenging all Central Alberta residents to make an appointment and give blood at the Canadian Blood Services donor centre in Red Deer this month.
In honour of Penhold resident Josephine Michaluk’s 2022 Guinness World Records achievement, the Town of Penhold is launching the inaugural Penhold Cares Campaign for blood donation in conjunction with Canadian Blood Services.
In September of 2022, Michaluk donated her 203rd unit of blood, setting a world record for the most whole blood donated in the female category.
The previous record was 117 units donated by Madhura Ashok Kumar of India, according to Guinness World Records.
The Penhold Cares Central Alberta Community Blood Drive Challenge will run Feb. 1 to 29.
“We are all excited to have a Penhold resident accomplish such a tremendous feat, and further to be recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records. We are proud to honour Josephine with the Penhold Cares Campaign,” Town of Penhold Mayor Mike Yargeau said in a release announcing the challenge.
“We are encouraging residents of Penhold, and Central Alberta, to head into Red Deer and donate blood this month. To make things a little more fun, we are challenging all other areas of Central Alberta to see which region can bring in the most donors this month.”
Anyone who donates blood in Red Deer in February will be able to indicate which of six zones they are from to see which area of Central Alberta had the most donors.
Penhold and Red Deer are each their own zones. Zone 1 is west of Highway 2 and north of Highway 592; Zone 2 is east of Highway 2 and north of Highway 42; Zone 3 is west of Highway 2 and south of Highway 592; and Zone 4 is east of Highway 2 and south of Highway 42.
This month, Michaluk will give her 209th donation at the Canadian Blood Services donor centre in Red Deer.
Having been a recipient of blood herself, Michaluk urges everyone to give blood if they are able.
“You don’t know when you are going to need blood. Even if you just donate once, you get a card with your blood type on it. If you need blood, they know your blood type,” she says.
Michaluk has been donating blood for nearly five decades, beginning in 1965 at age 22. At that time, she was a young wife living on a farm near Kevisville in Red Deer County.
She had no idea that tagging along with her sister for her blood donation in Calgary that year would be the first step on a path to setting a Guinness World Record for blood donation.
For many years, Michaluk would travel into Innisfail to attend the mobile clinics at the Royal Canadian Legion in Innisfail.
Mobile clinics have now been discontinued by Canadian Blood Services making Red Deer the donor centre for Central Alberta.
Michaluk has continued to give blood as often as she could.
“I just feel so good after,” she says.
According to Canadian Blood Services, the Red Deer donor centre needs to collect 1,224 units of blood in February to keep up with current hospital demands.
The Red Deer donor centre is located at #5 5020 68th Street and is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 7 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Make your appointment to donate blood online at blood.ca or through the GiveBlood app.
