RIDGELY, Md. – Before Dawn Jones passed away, she made a point to hold blood drives that gave back for the more than 50 units she received as part of her battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
Dawn coordinated the first blood drive held in her honor in 2019, but she passed away in 2021. By November 2022, her eldest daughter, Jessica, picked up the baton and began coordinating the in-memory blood drives with Blood Bank of Delmarva Account Manager Ralph Groves.
Jessica and all of her sisters, Cari Jones, Katie Jones, and Heather Jones, participated in the touching In Memory of Dawn Jones Blood Drive held at Ridgely Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday, November 9. Dawn’s’ grandchildren were at the event as well.
“We ended up with a lot more appointments [22], and we’ve already had six people come in as walk-ins,” Jessica said. “Thank you for coming and thank you for keeping it going.”
Lori Jester came to the blood drive with her daughter, Reagan Childers.
Another family friend, Michele Weber, supported the cause as well.
“Me and the Jones girls are very good friends,” Weber said. “We’re football moms, so I spent a lot of time with Dawn on the sidelines. So, I support this family as much as I can.”
In addition to friends and family, general members of the community supported the cause as well, including Debbie Spence.
“I didn’t know the woman this is in honor of, but I was due,” Spence said. “And, I have friends who knew her, and it’s important.”
Whole blood donor Jillian Luna agreed.
“It’s near and dear to my heart,” she said. “I also have a loved one who’s had more blood transfusions than I can think of. I used to donate all the time, and then I fell off. I saw this [drive] and say, hey, it’s time to get back into it.”
