After years of lacklustre donations, the UTM blood drive is announcing a new initiative to accept thoughts and prayers.
“Donating blood can be cumbersome,” a nursing student told The Medium. “Our screening process takes about an hour for first-time donations, and even then we have to reject a lot of people due to health reasons. The possibility of rejection scares away a lot of would-be donors, which is why I think the ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ initiative is so great. They can do it without even thinking too deeply about it.”
Certain aspects of donation have been controversial in the past, like stem cell donation, but the concept of giving thoughts and prayers to those experiencing tragedies is so normalized that no one has the chance to get offended.
“Usually when someone is in dire need of a blood transfusion, we have to express-ship bags of blood to them, which is gross when you think about it, and bad for the environment! With the new ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ initiative we can send them an email or even an emoji to sooth their emotional and physical woes,” the nursing student continued.
While Canada is still suffering from a grim blood supply shortage, the supply of thoughts and prayers has been flooded with contributions. Canadian Blood Services have now transferred these donations to the United States, where the countless mass shootings require a great number of thoughts and prayers. If you’re interested in giving your thoughts and prayers, be sure to Tweet, Instagram, or Snapchat the Canadian Blood Services, or simply go to their Facebook page and smash that like button. The current exchanges rate values 1 like as 1 prayer.
