Brampton Latter-day Saints Partner With Canadian Blood Services

For several years, the Brampton Ontario Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sponsored two blood drives, in July and August each summer, in conjunction with Canadian Blood Services (CBS). CBS is an independent non-profit organization set up by the Canadian federal, provincial and territorial governments to collect, test and manufacture blood and blood products as well as plasma, organs and tissues.

When the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic in March 2020, CBS faced new challenges of finding facilities that could host their mobile clinics, since all city-run and most faith-based facilities were locked down. So, CBS turned to the Church for help. In June 2020, the Brampton Ontario Stake began holding monthly clinics at their stake centre, located across from the Brampton Civic Hospital and next to the Toronto Ontario Temple.

Josie de Leon, the CBS co-ordinator, said, “We’ve been blessed to have the support of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the pandemic and these events have been among our strongest collection results!”

Each blood drive runs for about five hours and collects up to 100 units of blood, which can help up to 300 patients. Church members volunteer to assist at the drive as well as donate blood.

Greg Willmott of the Brampton Ontario Stake presidency said, “We are pleased to provide Church facilities to Canadian Blood Services for their blood donor drives. At these drives, the vast majority of the donors are not Church members, so this is a great opportunity for members of the Brampton Ontario Stake to strengthen relationships with the community and bless the lives of our fellow brothers and sisters. We desire to serve as Jesus Christ did, and we believe He can bring peace in these troubled times.”

All relevant safety protocols are instituted and co-ordinated with the Church, the City of Brampton and CBS. The protocols include running the clinics (by appointment only), COVID-19 screening of clients (both before and on-site), enhancing cleaning, maintaining safe distancing and ensuring extensive use of PPE.

The space used at the Brampton Ontario Stake Centre allows for flexible arrangements and maximum on-site equipment. As an example, CBS brings their own servers and routers to connect to their own internet service provider.

The blood donation clinics at the Brampton Ontario Stake Centre will continue through August 2021. The next blood donation clinic will be held Thursday, April 1, 2021.

Visit blood.ca to find additional blood donation centres.

Contributed by Peter Gothe, Brampton Ontario Stake communication director.