LifeStream Honors Top Blood Donors at Gift of Life Tribute

LifeStream proudly welcomed a record 1,200 guests to its annual Gift of Life Tribute, 10-Gallon Donor Celebration on Sunday, Feb. 28, at the Riverside Convention Center. The theme of the event, “The best gift you can give yourself is to give to someone else,” served as a colorful kickoff to LifeStream’s 65th year of service. Highlights were many and emotions were genuine, beginning with a hushed, respectful welcome to the City of Riverside Fire Department Honor Guard presenting the colors, and concluding with a rousing standing ovation to each of LifeStream’s eight, 100-gallon donors. LifeStream presented its Humanitarian of the Year awards to Chairwoman Lynn Valbuena, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians; and Serrano High School, Phelan. Under Chairwoman Valbuena’s leadership, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians has generously supported LifeStream by contributing toward the purchase of the organization’s newest, largest bloodmobile, and by funding additional testing to locate more individuals with the service area who have “rare-type” blood. The latter has succeeded in adding hundreds of donors to LifeStream’s “rare donor” library. Serrano High School has proven a model of conducting high school blood drives, and integrates instruction on the process and its results into curriculum under the guidance of Jayne Harrower, Serrano HS medical instructor and Health Occupations Students of America adviser. The effort also benefits from the support of Dan Andrus, Serrano HS principal; and Luke Ontiveros, superintendent, Snowline Joint Unified School District. The premiere of LifeStream’s new donor-patient video resulted in another heartfelt, sustained ovation when young Adrian Grajeda and his parents Eli and Brandy, Palm Desert were invited onstage to receive special thanks from Dr. Rick Axelrod, LifeStream’s president, CEO and medical director. The video profiled Adrian sustaining grave injuries to his right leg that required the limb be amputated. He needed 8 units of red blood cells – about 150 percent of his entire body volume – provided by LifeStream donors to stabilize his system and make recovery possible. Now 12, Adrian is back on the fields, courts and beaches, as active as ever. Detective Alex Collins, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department; Charon Simmons, Keely Proctor, Redlands and Dillon Sellers – all past LifeStream donor-patient video subjects – were on hand and warmly welcomed the Grajeda family to the “alumni.” With a nod to that evening’s Academy Awards’ presentation, guests enjoyed a “red-carpet walk” with (of course) photo op, along with a silent auction prior to the luncheon and program. Heather Froglear of 95.1 KFROG served as mistress of ceremonies. LifeStream supplies blood products and services to more than 80 Southern California hospitals.