SPOKES Club Blood Drive Successful

By Tanjua Damon

The Newtown Middle School SPOKES Club held its first community service event recently, a blood drive that provided 114 pints of blood for the American Red Cross. Now the group is embarking in another project – Coins for the Cure – that will run throughout the month of April.

Snow delayed the blood drive that was originally scheduled for March 5  to March 11. The SPOKES Club sponsored the event, which had a “Survivor” theme. In five hours 114 pints of blood were drawn. Now that the new community service club sponsored by the Rotary has gotten its feet wet, the group of middle school students is ready for its next service endeavor.

The new project is entitled Coins for the Cure. Beginning in April blue cans will be placed around Newtown in order to raise money for the research of leukemia and to provide the community with education about the cancer.

Ginny Chion, mother of the late Greg Chion who had leukemia and died from complications late last year, is heading the educational Coins for the Cure campaign. The club hopes the campaign will be both educational and raise funds for leukemia research.

Mrs Chion explained to the SPOKES Club members that leukemia is a disease of the blood. She told the students that Greg loved the middle school and was in the band, on the swim team, and was a member of the yearbook staff.

Blue cans (decorated by high school students in the class of 2001 and the Charity Club) will be placed around Newtown for the entire month of April so people can drop their spare change to help fund future research. But Mrs Chion told the middle schoolers that educating the public about the disease is just as important as raising money for the research.

“We want people to want to give. We’re asking people to drop coins in them. All those coins add up,” she said. “We want people to learn the symptoms of leukemia.”

Look for the blue cans around Newtown to help research and educate people about leukemia through the Coins for the Cure project.