Month: April 2019

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Getting their blood up: Red Cross stumbles in transition

Gary Grant has been frustrated in his attempts to donate blood since the Red Cross took over Virginia Blood Services in November. Photo by Eze Amos

By Shrey Dua

Although long-time blood donor Gary Grant arrived 15 minutes early for his March 7 appointment at the Red Cross, he and other would-be donors were sent home. The facility, a chapter office on Rose Hill Drive, did not have enough equipment.

“We got no notice, I drove 10 miles, and they told us our appointments were canceled and that the drive wouldn’t start for another hour,” he says. “This has been my experience the last two or three times I’ve been through the Red Cross.”

Grant, who has donated blood with various chapters around Virginia and spent a year volunteering at the Rose Hill Drive location, has also complained to the Red Cross about the lack of heating and the overcrowded, “messy” room where blood drives are held on Rose Hill.

Some donors believe this drop in quality to be a direct result of a transition the branch has been going through since Red Cross acquired the previous primary local blood collector, Virginia Blood Services, this past November.

Grant says he did everything the organization asked: Sign up online, complete his Rapid Pass to facilitate the process, and get there early. “But as soon as we got there, the phlebotomists told us, ‘We can’t take your appointments because the Red Cross didn’t send us enough equipment,’” Grant says.

Jim McVay, former president of the Central Virginia Chapter Red Cross and a regular blood donor since 1972, also has experienced problems at his appointments. “I’ve donated twice since Red Cross acquired VBS. In both cases there were a number of delays,” he says.

However, McVay feels donors should continue to support the Charlottesville chapter. “Just because Red Cross is going through a transition doesn’t mean we should give up on them,” he says. “Keep donating.”

Grant has contacted the national organization multiple times and continues to get apologies from customer-care coordinators.

Red Cross spokesperson Bernadette Jay says equipment was not functioning at the March 7 drive. “Unfortunately that did contribute to negative experiences for some of the donors.”

She says the Red Cross is working through the transition, and she urges community support, noting that she gets to see “the full circle” of people who get the blood they need. And she says the Red Cross makes sure hospitals are supplied.

Meanwhile, Grant has started donating at mobile drives held at various locations around Charlottesville, which he claims usually offer a better experience than what he’s had at the Rose Hill location—even though many of the mobile drives are also run by the Red Cross.

“For right now, I think donors have to be very careful of where they go to donate to make sure you won’t get deferred or get turned away,” he says. “I feel more confident that the blood drive will be more successful at places like hotels, ballrooms, and other off-site locations.”

That was before an April 1 drive at UVA, where he says walk-ins were turned away and he left because he didn’t feel safe after a phlebotomist botched his needle insertion and that of the donor before him.

Jay says she’s not sure about the details of that drive because it was still going on when she spoke to C-VILLE.

Says Grant, “I don’t know what the Red Cross is going through, but personally…I want them to be better.”

Correction April 4: The facility on Rose Hill Drive is a chapter office, not a blood services branch, and Rapid Passes are free, not purchased.

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News

In brief: Basketball fever, deadly tracks, terrorizer pleads, and more

Boylan Heights goes nuts March 30 as UVA takes down Purdue to advance to its first Final Four since 1984. Martyn Kyle

Buzzer beater

UVA heads to the Final Four in Minneapolis April 6 after a heart-stopping 80-75 win over Purdue’s Boilermakers, thanks to a last second bucket by Mamadi Diakite to put the Cavs into overtime. The win marks Virginia’s first appearance in the Final Four since 1984, coach Tony Bennett’s 10th year leading the Hoos, and redemption for last year’s first-round loss to a No. 16 seed.

Guilty plea in CHS threat

Albemarle High senior Joao Pedro Souza Ribeiro, 17, pleaded guilty March 27 to making a racist threat online that shut down Charlottesville city schools for two days last month. The Daily Progress reports Ribeiro told a juvenile court judge that he was “bored” in study hall and posted the threat as a joke. He’ll be sentenced April 24. Another Albemarle teen was charged with a felony for a shooting threat to Albemarle High, but police have not released his name.

Suing Alex Jones

Federal Judge Norman Moon ruled that Clean Virginia exec Brennan Gilmore’s defamation lawsuit against Infowars, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and others of his ilk can proceed. Gilmore videoed James Fields plowing into protesters August 12, 2017, and he alleges the defendants spread false information about him, resulting in death threats against him and his family. Jones is also being sued by Sandy Hook parents for claiming the mass murder of children was staged.

One train, two deaths

A Buckingham Branch train struck Sebastian Herrera, 39, of Waynesboro, around noon March 31 in Crozet, and then hours later killed an unidentified man in Waynesboro. Herrera, the third person to die on the train tracks in Crozet since 2015, was killed near Lanetown Road, close to where a Time-Disposal employee died last year.

Orange hotbed

The gated community Lake of the Woods has been the scene of alleged criminal activity recently. Ryan Chamblin, 36, was indicted on 161 counts of possession of child porn March 25. He’d previously been charged with five counts and two of failure to register as a sex offender. That same day, Stafford resident Roy C. Mayberry, 46, was indicted for embezzling more than $450,000 from the Lake of the Woods Association.

Quote of the week

“It’s clear that you would lynch me if you could so I’m never concerned with your thoughts.” —Mayor Nikuyah Walker in a Facebook comment to Justin Beights, who sarcastically said her negativity is inspiring.

Crime pays—a little into government coffers

Cash-strapped localities have been known to use speed traps to plug their budget holes (ahem, Greene County), and after the Department of Justice found that law enforcement in Ferguson, Missouri, had effectively been acting as tax collectors (bringing 23 percent of the town’s revenue in fines and fees), a 2017 report said that a number of other municipalities were doing the same thing. But it’s not the case in Charlottesville and Albemarle. 

“CPD does not use ‘speed traps,’” says Charlottesville police spokesperson Tyler Hawn. “We use traffic enforcement to ensure drivers are following the posted speed limits and rules of the road for everyone’s safety.”

As City Council finalizes its 2020 budget, it voted April 1 to up the local meals and lodging taxes (and seems likely to not raise the real estate tax, after “finding” another $850,000). With all that cash, citizen criminal activities make a small revenue contribution to the proposed $188 million budget. Albemarle County also gets revenue from convictions, a .1% pittance in its $487 million budget.

Here’s how some of the numbers stack up in the proposed fiscal year 2020 budget.

Charlottesville

Court revenue $500,000

Parking fines $420,000

Property tax $73.3 million

Meals tax $14.9 million

Lodging tax $6.4 million

 

Albemarle

Fines and forfeitures: $457,282

Property tax $201 million

Meals tax $9.8 million

Lodging tax $1.2 million

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News

Everybody plays: All-access playground moves forward

The parents of Bennett McClurken-Gibney, who died of spinal muscular atrophy in February 2018, will now build an all-abilities playground at Pen Park in his honor. It’ll be modeled after his favorite park in Richmond, where Bennett’s mom says he loved to lay in the saucer swing. Courtesy Kara McClurken

A place for all to play.

That’s the goal of Bennett’s Village, a proposed playground for children and adults of all abilities in Charlottesville, which City Council approved April 1. The parents of Bennett McClurken-Gibney, a child with spinal muscular atrophy who died in February 2018, now have permission to build a $5-million playscape at Pen Park. The city has agreed to maintain it as part of the deal.

Kara McClurken says she would like to model the playscape after Richmond’s Park365, which used to be her 5-year-old son’s favorite place to play. He loved to be rocked on the saucer swing and to climb the wheelchair-accessible treehouse.

“Almost every kid—they love heights, they love wind on their face, they love movement,” says McClurken. “That idea of really being able to look down [from the treehouse] across a landscape is something that he didn’t get very many opportunities to do, because he couldn’t use most equipment.”

Though the proposed three-acre space at Pen Park hasn’t been designed yet, she says it will include similar equipment that provides height and movement—such as the saucer swing, treehouse, or a merry-go-round with an option to lock in wheelchairs.

McClurken and a friend, the mom of another child with special needs, started to discuss the development of an accessible playground before Bennett’s death, she says. But the day after he passed, McClurken says her mission became more clear.

As she and her husband were leaving Johnson Elementary—where Bennett’s class was celebrating Dr. Seuss week, and the parents had already committed to bringing the eggs for green eggs and ham—“We were walking back through the playground and we just sort of looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s build that playground,’” she says. “‘Let’s make that his legacy.’”

So far, the parents and supporters have raised nearly $100,000 through their GoFundMe website and other donations. They also plan to apply for grants, and McClurken says she doesn’t anticipate the hefty price tag being much of a barrier.

“People just believe in the dream,” she says. “I haven’t met a single person who doesn’t understand why this is a good idea.”

Not only will it provide a space for children with limited mobility, but also for family and friends with similar disabilities who’d like to be able to play with the children in their lives.

“Bennett is certainly our inspiration and our light, but there’s just so much need,” she adds.

Vice-Mayor Heather Hill is in favor of the project. “I certainly support the concept of an all-abilities playground and bringing it to life through a public-private partnership,” she says. “Based on what we have heard from the community and what was presented to us at our [March 18] council meeting, this is clearly an unmet need in our immediate region.”

City staff will now draft a memorandum of agreement to define the partnership between the city and the folks of Bennett’s Village.

McClurken says she wishes she had her son’s help with bringing the playground to life.

“Bennett would probably be able to advocate for the park better than we can,” she says. “You could see him in his power chair and you could see his energy. We are poor substitutes for telling his story.”