Gateway Church and Carter BloodCare partnered together to hold their first ever summer blood drive over the past seven weeks. They were originally hoping to receive 300 total donations at the church’s six campuses, but they quickly exceeded that goal by their second week.
Their drive, which wrapped up this month, rallied together 1,582 blood donations. That's enough to potentially impact 4,749 people who are in need of life-saving blood.
The community came together to put on this drive after Gateway Church's founding senior pastor Robert Morris received several life-saving blood transfusions in early April. He was at home recovering from a double hernia surgery when he had to be rushed to the hospital via medical helicopter after passing out.
This tragic event inspired the congregation to donate blood in a time while other programs are seeing a decline in blood donations overall. This gave Carter BloodCare a rare summer surplus, so they are able to export blood donated to other areas of the country.