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By Staff
Editor,
I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to everyone who donated blood during Hartselle Medical Center's blood drive on July 9th. This event was the hospital's most successful blood drive in recent years, and marks a wonderful beginning to our relationship with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers.
As many of you know, North Alabama hospitals have committed to switching from Red Cross to LifeSouth as our primary blood supplier. The primary reason for this change is the ability of LifeSouth to provide blood products at a significantly reduced cost. As hospitals struggle with pressures associated with decreased reimbursement, we must look for ways to reduce costs without compromising quality.
In upcoming months, Lifesouth will be involved in several blood drives in the Hartselle area. I would encourage all of you to give blood if you can. If you are part of an organization that is planning a blood drive, I would ask that you consider LifeSouth as a partner in your event. By doing so, you will help to ensure an adequate, cost-effective blood supply for residents of our community and the surrounding area.
Tim Puthoff
Chief Executive Officer
Hartselle Medical Center
Editor,
Isn't it amazing what can be sold to unsuspecting adults in the name of education, schools or children? All one has to say is "let's do it for our schools" and people line up to sign on – whether its alcohol sales or the lotto.
Before the people of Hartselle try to solve their funding problems by legalizing booze, they should find someone in Decatur who doesn't yet own a beer store or liquor license and ask them a few probing questions: Did alcohol sales help your school funding problems? Did it strengthen your city's economy or make your town a better place to live?
If so, then why have they had to raise your taxes to make ends meet? Is you city just as "tax hungry" now as before?
Ask the obvious questions before you vote. Will the children benefit, or will the windfall go to a small handful of businessmen who sell the booze? Is life now all that bad? Once you change it, you may not like it, but you can probably never go back to the way it is now.
Charles Forsythe
Athens
Editor:
This past weekend, I was driving down I-65 from Nashville to Birmingham as part of a fun weekend with friends seeing Barry Manilow in Nashville
Friday night and then again in Birmingham on Saturday. (yes, we're big fans). On my way to Birmingham, I had a tire blow out and was stranded on I-65.
An interstate highway can be an unsafe place for women to be alone having car trouble. I called Honda Roadside
Assistance and they couldn't even figure out where I was in Alabama.
My friends came along in a car behind me and the five of us were going to change the tire, but I am embarrassed to admit that we couldn't even figure out how to get the jack unbolted from the trunk.
That's when the most wonderful man I think I have ever met stopped in front of Decatur Tractor Trailer and asked if we needed help. Even though it was hot and humid, he pushed my car out of the muck that it was stuck in on the shoulder of the road, then put the spare tire on my car.
I would like to thank him, but I didn't get his name. He told us he was a fireman as well as a truck driver. He also told us that he rides a
Harley and he had his beautiful little 5 year old girl, Amanda, with him.
The Fire Dept. shirt that he was wearing had the name, John, on it.
So John, I wanted to thank you again for your assistance and let you know that I made it home safely. You set a shining example for your daughter about helping other people.
Janet C. Hart
Charlotte, North Carolina