Last year the NASCAR Foundation asked Bristol Motor Speedway to participate in its first ever national blood and bone marrow drive. Naturally, we were honored to do so. For our first go-around, 157 persons donated blood and more than 50 folks signed up for the bone marrow registry.

Tuesday, Sept. 11 marked the Foundation’s Second Annual Blood and Marrow Drive and again BMS was proud to participate. The drive takes place on Sept. 11 each year. Obviously none of us will ever forget the tragic events on that day in 2001 when so many lives were lost in the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. It was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. But there were also a lot of heroic acts that day, which makes that date a good example of how small act can help so many; like giving a pint of blood, or signing up to possibly become a bone marrow donor one day.

Our day started at 10 a.m. and by noon nearly 50 folks had already given blood. Everybody who gave blood or signed up for the bone marrow registry received a free BMS goody bag, lunch (which lasted all day) and track laps, which meant they got to drive their car around the track. When the rain came just after noon, we had to forego the track laps but few folks really cared about that. Didn’t care much about the free food or even the goodies for that matter. Nope, for the most part everybody who came out today — and it turned out we had 145 come by despite the steady rain all afternoon — didn’t care about what they were getting. Instead, it was all about giving. On this day they wanted to give back, to help and to remember.

We have a lot of great folks in this area and they proved it on Tuesday. And we also had people come by from as far away as Iowa and Pennsylvania. One gentleman from Florida was passing through on vacation and he heard about the blood drive on the radio. He went out of his way to stop by BMS and roll up his sleeve. Why? He said he made a point of donating blood on Sept. 11, no matter where he happened to be on that date each year. It’s his way of remembering a tragedy but also his way of giving back and helping someone in need.

We were able to help a lot of people today and so were the other 21 NASCAR tracks that participated in the drive. We had a lot of fun and we met a lot of great people. More importantly, we were able to come together for a great cause and to ultimately aid those in need. The hard-working folks from Marsh Regional Blood Center and the Cooperative Appalachian Marrow Program Donor Center had a smile on their faces from start to finish. They were thrilled with the turnout, knowing how many people would be helped. Yep, it rained pretty much all day. But that didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. Turned out to be a pretty great day after all…

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