Sanford Health & Bemidji Rotary Club Host 4th Blood Screening Fundraiser

Keeping up with your blood work is just one responsibility of living a healthy life, and Sanford Health and Bemidji Rotary Club have a way to do it while simultaneously helping a local cause.

“It’s one of those things that the community is used to us doing it for a long time now. It’s kind of a rite of spring, the robin’s returned, the fishing opener is about to happen and it’s time to go have my blood drawn,” says Todd Glen, a Sanford Emergency Center supervisor.

Sanford Health and the Rotary Club of Bemidji have teamed up on their annual blood screening fundraiser for four years now, and both groups say it’s a great partnership.

“Rotary Club is a service organization made up of business people, community members, professionals, some retired, some still actively working,” says Marilyn Miller, a member of the Bemidji Rotary Club and the chairperson for the event.

For $35, anyone can have their blood screened. The whole process could take anywhere from 8 to 20 minutes, depending on if you come at a busy time or not. The results can either be mailed to you, or you can check them online with my Sanford chart.

“We’ll be able to check their cholesterol, blood lipids. Also some screenings for kidney function, liver function, anemia, kind of some general health things,” says Glen.

The money made from the blood screening fundraiser goes to the Paul Bunyan Inclusive Playground, which made its debut in the Fall of 2016. It’s currently one of the only playgrounds of its kind in the area.

Miller says, “There were a group of people in the community, a number of years ago, that realized that none of the playgrounds that we had were available or were used by children or adults that had disabilities, and these folks were trying to brainstorm how we could do something like this and have this for our community.”

There wasn’t only blood screening happening at the fundraiser. Attendees also had the option to get their blood pressure checked and learn about opportunity happening at Sanford Health. Overall, it’s just a just a good chance to get everything checked out.

“Blood screenings are good to get because it kind of helps you manage your own health. Nowadays, a lot of people use the Internet. You’re searching things. You wanna know how am I doing? So it helps you manage you own health, and oftentimes, if there is something that’s underlying you might not be aware of, it’s an opportunity to discover it and then you can speak to your doctors.”

As for the playground, the Rotary pledged $100,000 to the project, and now they’re on their last payment. Right now, they’re looking into funding their next cause.

“We have a list of ideas of what we might focus on for next year, and we’re in the process of prioritizing those and then coming up with another great thing to do for the community,” says Miller.

The blood screening event will continue through Friday. You can stop by Sanford Health for one at anytime between 7 to 10 in the morning.