● National Blood Donor Month
Anchorage in 2024.
“ Not only did they want to fly me to Alaska, they wanted to fly me( and my family) to Hawaii,” Vinton said.
The family traveled to Honolulu last summer and Vinton made his final donation on June 14, which was World Blood Donor Day. In addition, Hawaiian Airlines, which Alaskan Airlines acquired in December 2023, hosted its first-ever blood drive at its corporate headquarters.
“ Their employees at their airport, from flight attendants to pilots and the CEO, donated blood,” Vinton said.“ There were so many who had never donated blood. They were inspired by the story.”
Vinton’ s children, Lauren Smith, 26, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Collin Smith, 22, of Richmond, Virginia, are following their father’ s footsteps. Both began donating blood in high school and while studying at Penn State.
Lauren finds her father’ s achievement incredible.“ It started as a selfless thing, donating as much
blood as possible,” she said.“ When I was a young kid, I definitely remember sitting at the firehall( for blood drives) next to him.”
“ It’ s a culmination of everything he’ s done forever,” Lauren added.“ My grandpa also donated regularly. It was something he instilled( in my dad) and then he instilled in us.”
Four years ago, Vinton began donating platelets, which are fragments of larger cells made in the bone marrow crucial to wound healing.
“ I think the key message is even when we are very busy with life that’ s going on, we can still find time to give blood,” Vinton said.“ It doesn’ t take much time. It’ s very simple, very quick, and I believe it’ s very important.” V
Carol Smith of Salem Township talks to her son, Vinton, while he was giving blood in Honolulu, Hawaii, last summer. Vinton has donated blood in all 50 states.
Lauren Smith, left, donates blood along with her dad, Vinton Smith, and brother, Collin Smith, while in Honolulu, Hawaii, last June. A former Greenville area resident, Vinton has donated blood in all 50 states.
26 VALLEY VOICES