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Red Deer man buying dream home tickets to encourage blood donations

Mar 21, 2019 | 4:36 PM

A Red Deer man hopes to tap into our city’s community spirit to help two important local organizations.

Michael Pruss is buying a ticket for the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre Dream Home Lottery in recognition of each person that donates blood between now and April 7.

“I saw that the centre was shy on on ticket sales for the dream home and I thought, ‘I’m going to buy some anyway, and if I can encourage at least one person to go and donate blood for a ticket, then that would be a win-win situation.’ So that’s where it started,” explained Pruss.

Pruss says after attending a fundraiser for the CACAC last summer he became aware of the uphill battle many organizations in getting donations, especially because of the state of the economy. His initial thought was to purchase lottery tickets for his family and friends and to try and encourage his peers to do so as well.

A few months later he realized Canadian Blood Services was facing similar struggles.

“I’ve only been a blood donor for a few years now and I think it’s something that everyone should do,” he suggests. “I’ve had family and friends and even parents of friends go through huge operations and procedures and they required a lot of blood. These people can’t pay for blood, they are at the mercy of people going out and donating their blood. It’s just really important.”

Pruss added, “You see the commercials, you hear about your buddy’s uncle or your mother who donates blood but once you go out and do it once you realize, ‘Hey, this isn’t so bad.’  Every time someone donates a pint of blood it helps upwards of six people. That’s why I decided to start this.

He began by encouraging his friends to donate blood through a post on Facebook. Shortly after the CACAC reached out and asked if they could run with it.

“No one is doing this for any personal gain, just for the betterment of the community,” he points out. “If I can just get one person who’s never donated before to donate, that was the goal. Anything over and above that is a bonus.”

The Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre is embracing the challenge, and has expressed their appreciation and gratitude to Pruss for his community spirit.

“It’s unbelievable. It shows such community spirit to create more community spirit. It’s something that we’ve said all along that it’s time that everyone in the community comes together and works together to try and solve some of these issues and help each other, so the fact that he pushed it forward is awesome,” remarked Mark Jones, CEO for the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre .

Jones says the centre has struggled this year to get people to buy dream home tickets because it’s the first year they’ve done it. He says they are so grateful for Pruss for bringing awareness to their organization.

Members of the community are encouraged to join in the challenge by emailing info@centralalbertacac.ca with a photo of them donating blood and they will pass it on to Pruss.

The #GiveALifeChangeALifeChallenge ends on April 7 when ticket sales close.
 

 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE – Canadian Blood Services has issued the following statement in response to this story:

“Canadian Blood Services recently became aware of the #GiveALifeChangeALife challenge, whereby individuals could enter a contest for the chance to win a ticket for dream home by emailing the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre a photo of them donating blood. Any individuals participating in this challenge should be aware Canadian Blood Services is not a sponsor of this challenge, we are not participating in this challenge, nor do we endorse this challenge.

“While we are very appreciative of community efforts to help promote awareness around the need for blood donation, we have a policy that prohibits us from providing incentives in exchange for blood.”

NOTE: *Tickets will be purchased in recognition of the blood donation. Tickets will not be purchased directly for the donor.