The first community blood drive was held at RCPC on August 30, 2016. There were 17 blood donors that were members of our church. Due to the success of this blood drive and the hope of many more, Session approved a new mission group at its September 26, 2016 meeting. This new mission group was named “Pump-a-Pint." The purpose of this group was to sponsor quarterly blood drives that were to be held at Raleigh Court Presbyterian in the Fellowship Hall. The blood drives were to be professionally and medically administered by Virginia Blood Services.
Originator and Chairman of the Pump-a-Pint mission group was Lillian Alexander with Debbie Nash and Carolyn Hornick filling out the committee. Blood drives have been held quarterly (always on a Tuesday afternoon) since the inception. The Pump-a-Pint committee has been responsible for publicizing the drive to the church and to the greater Raleigh Court community, scheduling the blood donations, comforting the donors during the blood collection, and providing homemade nourishment after the blood collection. Virginia Blood Services provided the actual equipment and medical personnel required for collecting this “gift of life." Bonnie Cooper and Carolyn Kazner were later added as RCPC support volunteers.
Quarterly blood drives have been successfully held since 2016.
In January 2019, the American Red Cross absorbed the local chapter of Virginia Blood Services. Pump-a-Pint mission group has since been serviced by our local Red Cross. The Red Cross has added online donor scheduling, same-day online medical history collection and computerized donor registration.
In 2019, Pump-a-Pint had 135 blood donors during the last four blood drives.