Houchin ‘Donor of the Month’ is Mary Beth Garrison

Related Photos

Mary Beth Garrison, a dedicated blood donor, has donated just one unit shy of four gallons of blood and was named “Donor of the Month” by Houchin Blood Bank.

Mary Beth Garrison is well known throughout Kern County due to her longstanding involvement in politics, economic development, and community beautification. Garrison is best known as General Manager of the Stallion Springs Community Services District. To Houchin Community Blood Bank, Garrison is known as a dedicated blood donor, just one unit shy of her 4th gallon, and the volunteer coordinator of the new Stallion Springs mobile drives which started in 2011. The June drive collected 20 units and the October drive collected 25, for a 25 percent increase in a small community.

Christina Scrivner, Houchin’s Community Development Account Manager for Eastern Kern, reports that Garrison has been totally supportive of all the blood drives in the Tehachapi area which more than doubled in 2011 to 1188 units over 555 units in 2010.  Garrison is a real advocate for blood donation, although not that long ago she was afraid to give because of the needles. The whole idea scared her out, until she had a friend with Stage 4 cancer at the City of Hope.

Garrison said, “I thought to myself that if she can go through all the pain and suffering that she’s experiencing, the least I can do is conquer my fear and give blood. It was so easy that I’ve been donating ever since at Houchin.”