Dean Haas is a champion for blood drives in Jamestown
Mar. 31—JAMESTOWN — Dean Haas admits that when he first started donating blood, it wasn't really with a charitable reason in mind.
"That started all the way back in the military because back in the military if you donated blood, they gave you a half a day off. What the heck, you know," he laughs.
These days, he regularly donates blood and it has nothing to do with time off from work.
"It's what I can do to give back," Haas said. "I believe you should give back, not just take. And it's very easy for me to do that, especially to donate blood. An hour every eight weeks? Really? Is it that tough?"
He not only donates blood to help Vitalant, he coordinates two blood drives every year in Jamestown. He says it's only a few weeks of work to get 150 units of blood to help patients in need.
"... everything I do I try doing 100 percent," Haas said. "If I'm going to do something, I'm doing it the right way. For whatever that's worth. If I'm going to do it, I throw 110 percent effort into it."
Haas grew up in Napoleon, North Dakota, where he graduated from high school. He earned a Bachelor of Science in history at Valley City State University in 1983, with minors in physical education, coaching and driver's education.
"Then I went in the military and I was in the military for quite a while," he said. "I actually started with National Guard, then I went full-time Army and ... I was even an officer in the United States Army."
Haas spent a total of 10 years in the military stateside and was a paratrooper, a combat engineer and an Army medic, he said.
After his discharge, he moved to Jamestown and sold insurance for four years in North Dakota before joining R.M. Stoudt, where he's been a sales consultant for more than 33 years.
When Haas moved to Jamestown, he became a member of the Knights of Columbus. Billy Guthmiller was in charge of a KC blood drive and had served with Haas in the National Guard.
'He's the one that said, 'Haas, you need to come over and donate blood,'" Haas said. "I go, 'I have no problem with that, I've been doing it.'"
Haas has donated blood for more than 40 years.
"In that time, I've given over 20 gallons, I think I'm almost to 25 gallons now," he said.
He said through his work coordinating annual community blood drives at R.M. Stoudt and the KCs, he has helped get more than 3,500 units of blood for United Blood Services and later Vitalant.
"He has been a fantastic supporter of blood drives in the community out in Jamestown working with Vitalant," said Weldon Roberts, senior manager of donor recruitment for Vitalant.
Roberts has worked with Haas for eight years on those two community blood drives.
"With Dean, the first word that comes to my mind is passion," Roberts said. "He has a passion to make sure that blood is on the shelves in the hospitals. And that passion goes into a dedication of getting blood donors to his drives."
Haas recalls a few years ago there was a blizzard during a scheduled blood drive and he got a phone call from a Vitalant representative who said the drive was going to "flop."
Haas said no it wasn't.
"All I did is made phone calls and I called down to ... the (North Dakota) Farmers Union State Office and I got ahold of someone I knew and I go 'I know you guys aren't doing much other than waiting to go home because it's blizzarding outside, so load four or five people in a vehicle and come up to the KC Hall because we got a blood drive,'" he said.
Haas called businesses where there were donors he knew as well as other "good donors," telling them to bring two people with them.
"We had a total, total sold out drive, filled all the slots," Haas said. They also managed to get the bus loaded with the donations, which made it to Fargo despite the terrible weather, he said.
"There wasn't a beat missed," Haas said. "... so where there's a will, there's always a way."
Haas said he has worked with other blood drive coordinators in town when they're having trouble.
"They have a successful drive, it's good for Jamestown, it's good for everyone," he said.
Haas said getting people to donate here is not a problem.
"Of all the towns literally in North Dakota, Jamestown is the best per capita, bar none," he said. "No one touches us. So Jamestown people are the best at donating blood. So normally I don't have to spread the word so much, just got to let them know when the drive is 'cause they're real good about signing up."
Roberts agreed, saying there is a higher percentage of donors in the Jamestown area compared to the national average.
"(The) national average is less than 5 percent of the population donating blood three or more times a year," Roberts said. Although he did not know the actual number for Jamestown, he said it was a lot higher, noting there is a list of over 1,000 eligible donors in Jamestown.
Every eight weeks there is a community blood drive in Jamestown, Haas said. Other drives are also held at businesses but those are not considered community drives.
That doesn't mean Haas isn't looking for ways to get more drives in the community.
"He actually helped us get the Battle of the Badges blood drive started in 2016 (in Jamestown)," Roberts said. "This is the one where the police and the fire departments band together, reaching out to the community. We do a three-day blood drive in January — Thursday, Friday and Saturday. ... We just celebrated our 9th annual Battle of the Badges this January, and Dean was instrumental in getting the police and fire chiefs on board and excited about their blood drive as well."
Haas said there is always a need for blood.
"Roughly only 6% of the eligible people in the United States donate blood," he said. "So of all the people that are eligible, not everyone's eligible, but only 6 percent give. And there's always a shortage. The national statistic is every 2 seconds in the United States someone needs blood."
Roberts said currently, there is less than a four-day supply of blood on the shelves going out to hospitals.
"We're not in a critical need but the need is constant," he said. "That replenishment, having regularly scheduled blood drives, helps us make sure that we've got that blood product ready to go when those hospitals need it."
Vitalant supplies almost 70 hospitals in the area, Roberts said, and has to find at least 250 volunteers every day to meet that need.
"With that, we're not able to reach that many people directly," he said. "So we work with a lot of sponsors, coordinators out in various communities. That's where Dean comes in. He is the person on the ground talking face to face talking with people out in Jamestown and getting them to come to blood drives. Without people like him, we wouldn't be able to do our job, we wouldn't be able to meet that need."
Haas said people don't realize there's a shortage of blood and recalls one young woman who came to donate at a local drive for the first time several years ago after learning that firsthand.
She said the woman's mother went to Fargo for surgery, which had to be rescheduled because there wasn't enough blood on the shelves.
"And so she started to donate blood because she did not know there's that shortage," Haas said. "... There's just such a shortage, but the other thing, it's not like you got billions of dollars and you can just go buy yourself some blood. Blood has to be donated. You cannot produce it. It's not like a lot of other things we can go out and make more, buy more, whatever. If they don't have the blood, they don't have the blood."
Haas said all of his family and his children donate blood.
"People will sometimes tell me 'I've got my little ones so I can't donate that day,'" he said. "I go, 'Bring them, we'll watch them,' and they can see that Mom or Dad are donating blood and maybe down the road, now they'll become donors."
Haas said he sees people all the time who know nothing about donating blood as well as people who say they're scared to donate.
"And all I do is tell people 'Since you've never donated blood, please just do it one time for me,'" he said. "And then if you didn't like it, it was a bad experience, you never have to do it again. But try it once, and I think you'll be totally blown away that it's not the end of the world ..."
In addition to his work with blood drives, Haas finds time to serve on the Jimmie Booster Board, the 4th Degree Knights and as head usher at St. James Basilica. He also served with the group working on the NAIA Women's Wrestling National Championships at the University of Jamestown.
"I got a few things on my plate," he said.
Haas said he and his wife, Toni, who together have five children and five grandchildren, also volunteer in other areas of the community.
Haas said people interested in learning more can go on
, put in their zip code and find out where there are blood drives in their area.
"There is a such a need for it and it's the easiest way to give back," he said. "For someone that wants to give back what's one hour every eight weeks to donate blood? And you can change, literally, someone's life."
