We bleed for movies.
Really.
Two weeks ago, I noted that Barb and I ‘rarely’ go to movies in the theater. It is actually an oddity that we have been able to attend two films, (500) Days of Summer and The Hurt Locker.
To attend these movies, given the times we went to see them, would have cost $30. We spent nothing.
It’s not that we know anyone working in the ticket booth. Rather, we’ve discovered that doing something we would do anyway, donating blood, comes with a special premium.
I don’t know about blood centers in other parts of the country, but in Manatee County and possibly other areas served by Florida Blood Services, when one gives blood on the first or last Monday of the month, one is given in return a movie ticket to a nearby Regal Cinema.
Donating blood saves lives. I feel privileged every time I give to have the health and history that enables me to serve my community in this way. We commend this to all of you, movie tickets or not. Barb and I would give blood without this incentive, as long as Tracey (at the Lakewood Ranch center) is drawing, the only person in the world who I trust aiming a blood drawing needle in my direction.
But I confess. We like the movie tickets, and we schedule our giving around this incentive. Apart from this, attending a movie in a theater would probably move from ‘rarely’ to close to never.
If you’ve never given blood, do so. I won’t say that I like doing it. I don’t. But it’s not nearly as bad as your imagination tells you that it is.
And if you live near the Lakewood Ranch center, ask for Tracey. Tell her I sent you.
TulipGirl
So, I guess everyone will be there Monday, huh? *grin*
TulipGirl
Oh, just came across some current research on social marketing, specifically in the context of blood donations. And you are a perfect example of their findings. In a nutshell, one of the five recommendations was, "(5) tostimulate word-of-mouth among reference groups using member-get-member programs whereby current donors bring new donors to the system."
Randy Greenwald
Where do you stumble across THAT kind of info??!Barb just pointed out to me that the first Monday of September is Labor Day… I fear the center will be closed…
TulipGirl
I was poking around some scholarly journals, collecting research for a few papers this semester. That one caught my eye. . .Hmm. . . guess we'll have to miss Labor Day — but tomorrow is the last Monday of August! (Unfortunately they don't open until 10am. . . and I have somewhere to be at 11. . . Guess I'll have to miss the Somber&Dull blood party.)
Randy Greenwald
Good news! The Lakewood Ranch blood center IS open on Labor Day, 1000 to 630. I'll probably be there sometime between 1230 and 130…