Blitz for Blood Held in City
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Blitz For Blood Held In City By Joyce Henderson As a national project, the Association of Kinsmen Clubs across Canada offered assistance to the Red Cross and other blood bank services, by carrying out a Blood Drive Program from February 19th to 28th, 1973. The local Kinsmen Club (chartered on April 7, 1946), had previously assisted the Red Cross in their annual Blood Drives in Flin Flon. This year (1973), the Kinsmen decided to make the needs and values of the Flin Flon Blood Donor Service better known to the public. They also wished to convince at least 200 more people to add their names to the 400 donors listed. The Blood Donor Service consisted of citizens whose concern was the well-being of others. Considering that there were eight major blood types, and that donor could give blood only once every ninety days, it was necessary to have a list of a few hundred names. In the event of an emergency, ten or more units of blood might be used in a twenty-four hour period, the 400 donors could not continue without more participation from the community. In 1973, there were 400 donors on the list who had donated blood over 25 times, and a large number of them over forty times. Of the 400 donors, 380 were men and two-thirds were employed `by HBMS. Over the thirty-one years volunteers of the Flin Flon Blood Donors Service had given 14,650 units of blood, an average of 470 pints a year. The Blood Donor Service started in Flin Flon in February 1942, under the direction of Dr. Peter Gut-tormsson. Due to the distance and time involved in getting blood from Winnipeg. Dr. Guttormsson asked Nor-man 'Red' Bernard, HBMS employee, if he could find fifty fellow employees who would be willing to become blood donors. He did and the arrangement worked so well that it continued with the Flin Flon Clinic medical staff administering the service. As the need for donors increased, the operation was taken over by Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting and the Hudson Bay Mining Employees' Health Association (formed on May 1st, 1944). Red moved into the Personnel Department in 1949, and his job was to look after the donor list and obtain volunteers for the General Hospital and the Association (Company) Hospital when needed. He was on call twenty-four hours a day, every day. The medical staff continued to act as advisors with Dr. Glen Willson and Dr. Mery Schnider replacing Dr. Guttormsson. The procedure used by Red to obtain blood was quite simple: 'John Doe' had been seriously injured and rushed to the hospital. There was an excessive loss of blood and only an immediate transfusion could save his life. The lab technician on orders from the doctor, determined the blood type and gave the necessary information to Red. Red checked his files and located donors with the proper blood type. On January 10th, 1965, a reception was held to honour members of the Flin Flon Blood Donor Service. Buttons were presented to those who had donated their blood more than thirty times. Some of those receiving buttons were Charlie Dickens, John Blake, Laurie Johnson, Alex Chisholm, Joe Mahussier, Harry Lofendale, Garner Benson, and Walter Miller. A total of 9, 652 transfusions had been given by the Service in Flin Flon since the organization started. Dr. Percy Johnson, Medical Supervisor of the Flin Flon Clinic said the service was unique to Flin Flon and was recognized as one of the most successful of its kind in Canada. Dr. Glen Willson said the local Blood Donor group was the envy of other centres. He pointed out that in the nearly 10,000 donations there had never been a fatality because of the wrong blood. Willson said this was a great accomplishment and a tribute to the technical staff. Flin Flon, he said, had an almost unlimited supply of blood with human beings as walking `storage units'. On May 10th, 1970, ninety-one members of the Flin Flon Blood Donor Service, whose individual donations of blood ranged from 25 to 59, were honoured by the medical staff of the Flin Flon Clinic. It was noted that since the beginning of the Service over 1,500 residents of Flin Flon, Channing and Creighton had served as volunteer blood donors, with 12, 226 donations (pints) of blood donated. `The Kinsmen Blitz for Blood' started on February 19th, 1973, under Chairman Bill Friesen. The Kinsmen placed a large billboard near the Company's main gate and notices were posted on bulletin boards throughout the plant. The campaign appealed firstly to the community through newspapers, radio and the poster campaign. Secondly an appeal was mailed within the plant to all Company employees. Lastly the Kinsmen Club made a personal appeal. The Club said if you wished to become a donor they would be glad to talk to you. They would be easily recognizable by the button they would be wearing stating 'I'm a Bloody Good Kinsmen.' The campaign ran for ten days and at the end of the blitz, Kinsmen Bill Friesen felt that they had been successful in informing the public of the need for more donors. On October 23, 1975, Norman `Red' Bernard was honoured at a dinner. The evening provided a fitting tribute to Red who was retiring from Hudson Bay Mining and the Blood Donor Service. Mike Chlan, Chairman of the HBMS Employees' Health Association, was Master of Ceremonies for the evening and said Red was a Flin Flon institution of sorts. It was many a night when Red, on twenty four hour duty as usual, would summon some health;y Flin Flonner from bed for an emergency donation. Several of the faithful donors who were in attendance at the function were: John Blake with 93 donations, Frank Lawson -62, Al McConnell -58, Norm Murphy -58, and Laurie Johnson -56. Red was also a donor and had given 85 donations. Roy Brown, hospital administrator said, "The General Hospital was taking over the Blood Service, and can only do our best when you leave." Mike Chlan said he had only one gift and that was for Red's wife Anne, "I'm giving you back your husband!" For twenty-six years Red's job always came first and because of this, Flin Flon en-joyed a blood service unique in the country. But for one man's dedication, it never could have worked. Note: This picture was added to the Joyce Henderson article by FFHP staff. HBM&S Stack Rises To New Heights By Joyce Henderson On August 2nd, 1966, Town Council discussed sending a request to Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting to see if some control could be had regarding the damage caused by the Zinc Plant and Smelter smoke. Councillor Harry Easton felt that Flin Flon was a smelter town and it was something people had to live with. "As long as smoke keeps billowing up the stacks, Flin Flon will be here. When it ceases Flin Flon will be gone." At the beginning of February 1970, Rene E. Toupin, Minister of Health and Social Services, announced a schedule of winter meetings to be held in northern Manitoba by the Clean Environment Commission. Flin Flon's meeting was set for February 10th. At that meeting HBMS was seeking permission to release smoke into the air from its base metal operation. D.J. Robert son, General Manager, said it was impossible to increase the height of the two present stacks built in 1930, at the Zinc Plant and Smelter with the present foundations. On June 23rd, 1970, HBMS was granted two licences to permit operations to continue under the limits imposed by the CEC (Clean Environment Commission). One licence permitted the Company to discharge wastes from the tailing area into Ross Creek, provided they analyzed the discharge monthly. The other licence was for a period of four years and allowed the Company to continue emission discharge into the air from their stacks, subject to specific conditions. By mid-September, HBM&S announced they planned to spend two million dollars on a two and one half year project in an effort to eliminate the discharge of sulphur dioxide gas into the atmosphere. In October, D.J. Robertson sent a lengthy report to City Council clarifying the procedure to lessen pollution in the area. In February 1972, Robertson addressed the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on the same topic. And at a twenty-five year watch presentation gathering on May 26th, Robertson announced that an application had been made to the Manitoba Government for approval of the construction of a 750 foot smoke stack and the 250 foot copper stack. On July 24th, the CEC hearing on the Company's application opened at Ruth Betts School. A large crowd of concerned residents were on hand to state their objections. The citizens said .they were not against the higher stack, but felt that it was not solving the problem of the sulphur dioxide emissions. Wayne Fraser, HBMS Enviroment Engineer, outlined the studies done on possible methods of removing sulphur dioxide from the emissions. To remove the sulphur dioxide meant creating a by- product. This created the additional problem of disposing of the by-product, and according to the Company there was no market for such a by-product. All this would do was exchange one pollution problem for another. "Therefore", Fraser said, "this leaves us with but one practical and reasonable solution, that of dispersion from a high stack." The 750 foot stack was proposed to provide additional insurance against unpredictable weather conditions, and to provide lower than the required sulphur dioxide levels of 0.34 parts per million set down by the National Air Quality Objectives.