Wednesday, October 9, was a beautiful fall afternoon in Charleston! If you happened to walk down Church Street, you would have seen the Red Cross Blood Mobile parked between the church and the Parish House. You would also have seen some of St. Philip’s Home Missions Committee members checking parishioners in to give blood for St. Philip’s inaugural blood drive in partnership with Tricounty Family Ministries. We were able to exceed our goal of 24 units; 25 men and women gave blood, which equals up to 75 lives saved!

We also distributed several kits for Be The Match®, a global bone marrow transplantation leader that helps connect nearly 500 transplant, donation, collection, and recruitment centers worldwide. The kit contains a simple cheek swab; mail it in to be added to the bone marrow registry and possibly get matched with someone who needs a lifesaving bone marrow transplant for one of over 70 types of blood cancers or other diseases. If you are interested in joining the registry, please contact Ben Hagood (benhagoodjr@gmail.com) or another member of the Home Missions Committee (contact info available at stphilipschurchsc.org/home-missions).

Thank you to each and every person who came out to help! Your Home Missions Committee continues to try to offer a variety of ways we can all give back to our community; we look forward to another blood drive in the future!