Strange, but true, for the second year in a row the Sun Country Corvette Club has attracted people to an event by promising that participants would get a big needle poked in one arm and be drained of a pint of precious blood. Even stranger, and just as true, the Phoenix, Arizona-based club drew a lot more people to their Corvette Challenge For Blood this year than they did at their inaugural event a year ago!
This Corvette club blood drive is the brainchild of Kurtis Bell. Kurt describes himself as a nurse, a modest description for a helicopter-based emergency medical technician. Regardless, he's on the frontlines for providing trauma care, a big portion of that can be giving aid to persons who are suffering severe blood loss. As Kurt related in the article we ran a year ago ("OUT FOR BLOOD," June 2001), in late 2000 and early 2001 the Phoenix area was experiencing a major shortage of blood. He came up with the idea of conducting a blood drive with "his" club, Sun Country Corvettes. That quickly grew into a club challenge, and in a matter of about four weeks, Kurt made his concept into a full-blown event with multiple sponsors, including his own employer, Native American Air Ambulance, and Casino Arizona. To make a long story short, the first Corvette Challenge For Blood was such a success, there were more potential blood donors than capacity in the United Blood Service mobile unit. And in spite of getting gouged with huge needles and drained of vital fluids, the participants had a great time.
Although the drastic shortage facing the Phoenix region eased, the need for donor blood for medical purposes is ongoing, hence the second annual CCFB, which was held January 26th and 27th. The fact that, last year, Kurt Bell and his fellow pranksters from the Sun Country Corvette Club were able to go from "How 'bout we try to do 'sumthin" to a full-blown event in four weeks is nothing short of astounding. With the luxury of having made the contacts and the gained experience of Blood Drive I, as well as having most of an additional year to put things together, making CCFB II a reality was, by contrast, a cinch.
I'm a sucker for '67 big-block...
I'm a sucker for '67 big-block coupes, and this one-a Bloomington Gold certified and NCRS Top Flight restoration before returning to the streets-was as nice as they come. It's a 400 horse (tri-power)/four-speed/factory air car. Look for a spread on this beauty in an upcoming issue.
So, seeing as how they had it easy, Bell and his buddies upped the ante for '02 by turning the Challenge into a TWO day event. No, these guys aren't so sadistic that they'd try to pull off the Dracula routine two days in a row. Day One would again revolve around a club challenge blood drive, and Day Two would be a fun day, a "Thanks a lot!" day for everyone who'd participated-especially those who'd donated blood during Day One.
Casino Arizona again provided the venue, which included supplying a fairly sizable meeting hall where the Red Cross set up shop to draw blood. Kurt's employer, Native Air Ambulance, again stepped up to the plate with major support-and the offer of drawings for helicopter rides for a few lucky participants both Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday was pretty much a rehash of the previous year's entire blood drive challenge, with a few important differences. There were about three times as many participants, a half dozen or so sponsors/vendors on hand to display their wares and conduct seminars, and a much loftier blood donation target of 60 pints total. Joan "Mako Mama" Spoerndle made an appearance with her Miss Mako '64 Sting Ray to help raise funds for the event's selected charity, the Phoenix Day Children's Learning Center; there was also a Saturday afternoon fundraiser auction. All told, over $600 was raised for the Children's Center. There were 135 participants on hand Saturday, 126 volunteered to donate blood, and 60 pints were actually donated (the Red Cross says that the average ratio of volunteers to actual donors is about 20 percent-the Corvette folks hit almost 50 percent!). As things were winding down Saturday afternoon, the donor count stood at 59 pints and I'm really proud to say that my son, Rob, (who'd come along to help me as needed on photography) overcame his needle phobia to become donor number 60.
 |  Casino Arizona, on the east...  Casino Arizona, on the east side of suburban Phoenix, on the Salt River Indian reservation, again played host to Sun Country Corvette Club's Corvette Challenge For Blood. |  Merle Hardy of Exotic Muscle...  Merle Hardy of Exotic Muscle conducted one of the performance seminars on Saturday. |