Business in the 217: ImpactLife's Tara Matheson talks blood needs across this February and beyond!
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Business in the 217 here with your host, Trent R. Nelson. Good morning, good morning, good morning, and what a wonderful morning it is indeed to talk about blood, and you know we do that so often. Well, we should be on a payroll over at Impact Life. We'll have to talk about that off air. Good morning, Tara Matheson. How are you today? Hello, hello. I'm back.

Well, we are so thrilled that you are back. Jim Watts, he does such a marvelous job in your stead, but it's good varieties of spicy life. Not paprika. Yeah. Variety. Oregano. Oregano, si. Uh,

Let's keep it boogieing. Tara, well, we missed you so much. And, well, Jim, he puts down a great shift every time he comes talking about blood. That's your topic of expertise as well. Yes. A lot has happened since last we had you down to blood, right? Yes.

What has been going on and what can we expect across February, perhaps even March? Give us the tea. I will tell you all about it. Right now, sister station WNNS is hosting a Give What's In Your Heart blood drive the whole month of February. Give What's In Your Heart, that's literally blood. It is. That's, get it?

We have a ton of prizes. First, one of four $50 restaurant gift cards you'll be in a drawing for. You are also in a drawing for a $750 flight rebate from Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport. Fly SPI, it's the easy way out.

And we also at the Blood Center, you're going to get this not in a drawing, but when you come to give, when you give blood, receive a $40 gift card from us. And that's everyone. That's not a drawing. That's just come give. We're going to give you $40. That's through the end of next week. The 23rd, I believe, is the date.

but after that we still have prizes. You can give your gift card money to your favorite charity. Also, that's an amazing choice we offer. I always have loved that choice. And then we have, or points to our donor loyalty store, which you can get all the cool impact life swag. Well, you know, like impact life and impact life is going to help your life be impacted in the, in that something. Now there are lots of prizes and impact life is always so generous. Uh,

Whether they are partnering specifically with NNS or not, and certainly the community, we all appreciate that. But let's get down to brass tacks for a moment.

Even if we did not have these material incentives, right? Why is it so important that we give what's in our hearts to all the other heart-bearing folks? Well, there's so many things going on these days. We at Impact Life, we supply the hospitals that we have contracted to provide blood for.

once we have supplied blood to those hospitals to their needs, we are able to share it with other blood centers across the nation. And we have done that a few times since the beginning of the year, disasters, tragedy, but we're there for it. We're here for it. And we need people to come in and restock the shelves so that we have plenty of blood for surgeries, for, you know,

any kind of traumatic accident, to supply our emergency services, vehicles, you name it. It has to be there when it's needed. It's got to be there when it's needed. We are the change of which we are seeking to so many degrees. We must go out and give blood. We must ensure that not only our local hospitals, the ones that Impact Life contracts with, have all the blood that they need, but...

the greater nation, the greater world. We all have the stuff. We must ensure that we all continue to have the stuff, and we can only do that by giving, as the host of this program has noted to both Tara and Jim Watts in the past. Well, if every single person just gave blood, well, then you would almost be just

depositing your own for later. But since we do not have that, and that's not how blood banks work anymore, we have to just settle with giving and enjoying the fact that we're helping somebody else be prepared for something. And should we fall victim to some type of accident or incident,

Well, we should be grateful that there is some random person in Nebraska who was like, I'm giving blood on Wednesday, fellas. That is a real gift. And we cannot take this for granted. No, it is. There's no substitute, no substitute for for blood.

Well, yet. I know that there is. Very ominous. Yes, yes, yes. There are people out there trying to find that. And actually, that's been the case in my 24 years at the blood center. It just hasn't happened. So there's no substitute. We rely on volunteer blood donors.

Yeah.

We recycle Taco Bell into red blood cells. Tara, you are absolutely brilliant, and we so appreciate all that you do for not only us, but the greater community. Everyone who needs blood, you folks are on the front line of ensuring that we have the stuff, but we know we have to let you go. This is the great...

Great tragedy of our medium. What can you tell us about where folks can learn more information, where they can look to sign up, see what kind of prizes you got, et cetera, et all? WNNS.

Backslash heart is a place where you can go sign up for the blood drive happening in February. Or you can go to bloodcenter.org and click on donate and you can schedule there. You're in here first, folks. There are several ways to do the thing. You should go out and do the thing. Give blood, especially if you are like the host of this program and your blood will help everyone. Well, then you've got to go do it. That's a lot of weight, a lot of pressure. Best way to get that pressure off of you. Just give some blood.

No big deal. And who knows, you might be grateful for yourself one day, but in all likelihood, others will be very grateful for you. And what is better than receiving? Well...

It's giving. There we are. Tara Matheson, appreciate you so much. I hope you have a marvelous rest of your day and week, and we'll catch you real soon, all right? Thank you, Trent. Absolutely. Business in the 217 here with your host, Trent R. Nelson. Well, why don't you go out and enjoy the gift of life? You've got it running through you all the time. But let's for a moment imagine that others do not. Through some accident, through some illness.

through some trial and tribulation. They may not be as secure in their blood as you are, and so why not give a bit of yours to them? It's a gift worth giving, and, well, we really cannot even quantify it.

how brilliant such a gift could be. We must only think of the family members that get to see others for longer and the life experiences we get to attain further. So until we do this thing all over again, we hope that our listeners have a marvelous rest of their day and week and we'll catch them all real soon.