Making Tomorrow Better Than Today

Saving Lives by Giving Blood

With a blood transfusion needed almost every two seconds and the average car accident victim needing 100 units of blood, there is a great need for blood in the U.S. To meet this need, the American Red Cross plays a critical role as the nation's largest single supplier of blood, collecting 40% of the nation's donated blood and distributing it to over 3,000 hospitals nationwide.

Donating blood can truly help save lives and has the opportunity to impact so many in our community. Just one person has the ability to help save up to three lives with one donation of blood.

As part of American Red Cross Month, this Friday, March 25th, I will participate in the American Red Cross Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region open house and donate blood. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Red Cross Blood Donation Center located in Cape Girardeau at 20 S. Mount Auburn Road, you can join me and others from Southeast Missouri in this important act of giving blood.

The Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region relies on 1,000 donations of blood every day to meet their annual distribution of over 240,000 blood products to patients in need. At this Friday's open house, we can go a long way in helping meet this daily need.

Also as part of the open house, members of the Southeast Missouri Chapter of the American Red Cross will also be on hand to discuss information about the full range of Red Cross services. Guests are invited to tour the donation center offices and view the new American Red Cross Donor Bus and Disaster Service Vehicle which will be on display.

For more information about the event or setting up a time to donate blood, contact Laurie Nehring, Communications Manager for the Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross at 618-303-2777 or visit their web site at http://www.redcrossblood.org/.

Feeding the Hungry

According to a November report, Household Food Security in the United States, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 17.4 million households in America had difficulty providing enough food for their family in 2009. For Missouri, this meant over 366,000 households are struggling with hunger. And in Southeast Missouri, 15.4 percent of households are faced with the problem of having enough food to eat.

The Southeast Missouri Food Bank is one organization, working with over 150 nonprofit hunger relief agencies across Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Dunklin, Madison, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry, Reynolds, Ripley, Scott, Ste. Genevieve, Stoddard and Wayne counties to fill the plates of Southeast Missouri's hungry. In 2009, the Food Bank obtained and distributed 5.2 million pounds of food; enough to serve approximately 40,000 families throughout Southeast Missouri.

Recently, a group of Southeast Missouri members of the General Assembly came together to support the work of feeding the hungry by donating to the Southeast Missouri Food Bank's Mobile Food Pantry. Representatives Steve Tilley, Shelley Keeney, Ellen Brandom, Wayne Wallingford, and I each sponsored mobile food banks throughout Southeast Missouri. Each mobile pantry costs $600 for up to 8,000 pounds of food and can serve up to 350 people, providing those in need with a week's worth of basic staples, including fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and frozen foods.

In addition to money donations, the Mobile Food Pantry Program is dependent on volunteers at site distribution points. As part of my sponsorship, on April 9th, I will join community volunteers in Perryville at the St. Vincent de Paul Church parking lot from 12 p.m. to approximately 2 p.m. to distribute food.

I invite you to join me in making a direct impact in Southeast Missouri and help fill empty plates. By sponsoring, donating, or volunteering with Southeast Missouri Food Bank's programs, you are able to fill this large need of feeding the hungry. For every dollar you are able to give, it helps provide seven meals.

You can find more information on how you can help those who are hungry in your area by visiting the Southeast Missouri Food Bank's web site at http://www.semofoodbank.org/ or you can contact Missy Rice at the Southeast Missouri Food Bank by calling (573) 651-0400 or emailing her at merice@feedingamerica.org.

Walking to Create a World Free of MS

Every hour in the United States, someone is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. While we often take for granted the movements our body makes throughout the day, more the 400,000 Americans are unable to make the most basic of movements because of multiple sclerosis.

Community members in Southeast Missouri living with this crippling disease turn to the Gateway Area Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The chapter provides a wide range of programs to help people living with MS and their families connect with others in our community, access resources, and assistance, stay active, and learn about MS. There are over 6,600 people in the Gateway Area Chapter service area living with MS.

One event the Chapter puts on is Walk MS, a rallying point for the MS movement where the community can come together to raise funds and celebrate hope for the future. Walk MS participants raise critical funds to support cutting edge research, drive change through advocacy, facilitate professional education, and provide programs and services to help people with MS move their lives forward.

I am participating in Walk MS in Cape Girardeau and I invite you to join me in raising awareness and money. This event helps the National MS Society continue to provide programs and services for families impacted by MS, while funding vital research into the cause and cure of the disease. The walk will take place on April 10 at Capaha Park starting at 1 p.m. For more information, to participate, donate, or volunteer you can visit the Walk MS's web site at: http://walkmos.nationalmssociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=WLK_MOS_homepage

Contact Me

As always, I appreciate hearing your comments, opinions, and concerns. Please feel free to contact me in Jefferson City at (573) 751-2459. You may write to me at Jason Crowell; Missouri Senate; State Capitol; Jefferson City, MO 65101, or e-mail me at: jcrowell@senate.mo.gov or visit me on the web at www.senate.mo.gov/crowell.