According to club leadership, Noon Kiwanis is proud to be in the life-saving business.

No, members don’t toss flotation devices into Fountain Lake on a regular basis to rescue drowning swimmers, but they do coordinate ongoing blood drives that have netted gallons upon gallons of blood.

And there is no doubt that blood donations save lives.

The club for many years has organized a community blood drive in coordination with the Town of Fountain Hills.

In fact, five blood drives are held annually, dating back to the 1990s.

Vitalant, the non-profit organization that actually collects and distributes blood to area hospitals, announced that Fountain Hills in 2022 broke a new personal record for “units” collected.

A total of 901 units of blood were collected last year, surpassing 874 units in 2021 and 810 in 2020.

Noon Kiwanian Paul Appeldorn has been the main organizer behind the drives for several years, receiving many accolades from Vitalant for being a “Hero” and one of a few top blood drive coordinators in the state.

For many years local chiropractor Dr. Liz Smith also assisted with coordinating blood drives.

She is a former Noon Kiwanis Club president.

“Paul volunteers for several organizations, but he has been an outstanding Kiwanian for many years,” said current club President Russ Albanese. “We are quite proud of Paul and all the hard work he has done on behalf of Kiwanis and the blood drives all these years.

“This type of volunteer work is exactly what Kiwanis is all about.”

Appeldorn said the onset of COVID in 2020 actually increased the number of new donors who were willing to get stuck with a needle for the sake of humanity.

Some of those initial drives were held in mobile vehicles, and then they were located in Community Center ballrooms to provide more spacing.

Now they are back to being held in some center classrooms.

Albanese also wanted to thank the Town of Fountain Hills for partnering with Noon Kiwanis all these years in providing free space at the Community Center for the drives.

“And the center’s staff has just been wonderful to us all these years,” Appeldorn added. “We’ve had several drives where all appointment slots were filled, but the Vitalant staff has done a great job of also accommodating many walk-in donors.”

Although the number of actual donors decreased in 2022 from 2021 (866 donors in 2020, 940 in 2021 and 882 donors in 2022), the number of blood units increased.

“We had slightly fewer donors but more power red and plasma donors, accounting for the increased units,” Appeldorn explained.

The blood drives also have witnessed donor-made appointments growing from an average of 39 percent in 2020, some 44 percent in 2021 and up to 52% in 2022.

“These numbers and saving lives wouldn’t be possible without our residents who are willing to roll up their sleeves and sacrifice some time and blood,” Appeldorn said. “We have many dedicated repeat donors who give at each one of our drives.”

According to Vitalant, many people believe that most blood is needed after major disasters.

However, daily personal emergencies and ongoing medical needs of thousands of patients require a constant and ready blood supply. It’s the blood already on hospital shelves that saves lives.

Every day in the U.S., patients in hospitals, surgical centers and emergency treatment facilities need approximately 29,000 units of red blood cells, 5000 units of platelets and 6500 units of plasma.

Five blood drives have already been scheduled for 2023 at the Community Center: Jan. 27-28, April 14-15, June 23-24, Sept. 1-2 and Nov. 17-18.

Information can be obtained from Appeldorn at 480-836-8213, or visit donors.vitalant.org (blood drive code: Kiwanis).