Photo Gallery - 4th Blood Donation Camp

What a bright and sunny start for our

4th and last Blood Donation Camp of the year...

I and Rtn. Surinder Pal Kaur set up our shop full of goodies by 10am :)

I guess I had no option but to look at the bright side of the day, after being rejected on account of low Hb :(

The Cheer Brigade of Rotarians soon joined the CATS...

It's always a joy to see our regular donor, CAT Madhvi
who dropped by before going to her office...


Soon the first batch of Smart Data Inc. gang pussy footed through the doors...
This was the begining of a deluge :)

Our partners in crime;

employees of both Smart DATA Inc. and Bay Infocomm.

line up for the first group donor photograph of the day.

If you thought only guys come forward to donate blood, think again... notice that charming young lady in the corner eagerly awaiting to be bled :)

If the morning was a little quite... we were fighting for space at the blood bank soon ;-)

Our acquintances also joined in soon... Vasu Bhasin was pleasntly surprised at our little gesture and merrily joined in to donate blood...

Here's another one of our regulars, CAT Arti who has also given us CATS another first - She is the first mother-in-law of CATS :)

Here's another batch of SDI'ians under the cheerful leadership of CAT Anu C... I have no words to describe the amazing energy this bundle of bones brings into CATS...

Anu C not only contributed tremendously over the year to our own blood donation camps, but also encouraged her Nagpur office to organise a similar drive there too, which resulted in 17 Nagpur SDI'ians walking into their local blood bank to make Blood Donation a part of SDI life and culture.

Three MEOWS to CAT Anu C :)

The camaraderie on the day was simply stupendous...

SDI could not send in enough people and Bay Infocomm sent in every medically fit employee to help as many lives as possible...

The merriment extended from the bleeding room to the refreshment corner...

I would also like to share with you that our endeavour of holding the camp brought immediate relief to two families this afternoon. I was approached for four units required urgently by a cancer patient admitted at Silver Oaks and one unit for a pregnant lady admitted at Chaitenya Hospital awaiting an immediate C-Section. The look of sheer relief on the tormented faces of both the families made it all worthwhile. There indeed is nothing beyond life.

The most joyous moment is this - our Dulha CAT Jasmeet and his dulhan CAT Jasmine celebrated their first wedding anniversary by donating blood together.... We sure hope that this noble gesture permeates the life of every CAT amungst us.

Infact, such was their determination that when CAT Jasmine was rejected after visual examination on account of low Hb, she literally dragged CAT Paramjeet to speak to the doctors in-charge and get her blood test done... I bow my head in admiration CT Jasmine...

Our old timers on the bleeding block; CAT Navpreet, CAT Vasu and CAT Anu A merrily donating blood for the needy... CHEERS!

Our extremely busy reception desk was manned by CAT Hemant, CAT Gopika and CAT Jasmine in rotation... CAT Ashish A kept bringing in the drinks... CAT Navpreet took time out of his busy schedule to keep his commitment with CATS... whilst CAT Paramjeet, as usual kept charge of the camera... CAT Joey brought in a pleasant surprise for us ...

CAT Joey sturmmed some beautiful pieces on the guitar which soothed our tired souls from a very long, hectic but extremely fruitful day....

I bet no where else can you delight in such musical treats at a blood donation camp :)

We thank CAT Vasu for bringing in his friend Swapnil along, who readily agreed to donate blood with CATS.. Here's another CAT in the making??!!!

Here are some more 'regulars' from SDI, who have given blood not only at our camps but also whenever a request was received by CATS for urgent blood units required for surgeries and dengue patients...

We finished the day off with 72 units at Rotary Blood Bank, with CAT Deep Inder having made arrangements for CATS to donate blood at Fortis Blood Bank the following day...

CAT Sandeep B was the first one to open the account on day 2 with Babbi Ji on guard to greet the donors...

Day 2 belonged mainly to CAT Deepinder, who's efforts saw Doctors, Nursing staff and administrative employees of the hospital joining hands with CATS...

Our bundle of fun, Doctor Sandeep lying at the far end called up his wife to tell her that he would be giving blood today. She replied, 'Theek hai, de do lekin pichhli baar ki terah kameez mat khoon se gandi ker ke lana!!'

Daag achhe hain ;-)

Since our target was 50 units and we were close to touching 100, we actually had run out of the CATS key rings we were giving to each donor... Towards the end, all the main CATS actually gave me their CATS blood donation badges so that we could give a offer a little gesture of thanks to the new donors...

Day 2 saw yet another pleasant surprise.. this brother sister duo (Damandeep and Damneet) along with their father Parminder Singh donated blood with CATS, in order to celebrate their respective birthdays... Hats off to their father for inculcating such noble values in his children by having donated the blood himself around 40 times...

Zindagi... Zindabaad

Zinda-dilli... Paaindabaad

We rounded off Day 2 with gratitude and humility for all the donors made time for the camp.

CAT Abhijit led a few more SDI'ians on Day 3 to the Rotary Blood Bank to help us reach a of 98 units over three days during our 4th blood donation camp.

I could not possible sign off without acknowledging the active interest taken by Mr Tewari (CEO of Smart Data Inc.) who sent a total of 47 donors to make this camp a complete success. I would also like to acknowledge the support of Mr Madra (Director Operations of Bay Infocomm.) who sent in 13 donors for this camp. CAT Deep Inder deserves a special mention who was instrumental in incouranging 10 Fortis donors on day 2.

I would also like to thank the properiter of Bittu Bangles for having given us the environmentally friendly jute bags on which CATS logo took a place of pride. Keeping with the theme of nature and environment, CAT Dharminder provided wildlife postcards, CAT MP Rai provided information booklet on all the nature reserves of Punjab and Mr Ishwar Singh provided literature on the Sukhna Nature Reserve of Chandigarh. Goodybag could not have been complete with a little gift from CATS to the donors, which this time was a wooden key ring with MEOW inscribed on it :)

To re-cap, at the four blood donation camps held in the eyar 2008, CATS have donated a cumulative total of 243 units. In addition to this, CATS have also donated either whole blood or platelets to the needy patients or out-station patients in distress to the tune of 17 units.

Hence, with great pride I declare that our merry bunch of CATS and our partners have donated a total of 260 units in total for the year 2008.

I would also like to take this opportunity and categoricaly state that what CATS do is little out of the ordinary. Blood donation should be an absolute and indisputable way of life for each one of us medically fit individuals. A relatively unknown organisation called Cosmos Finance based in Dadu Majra led by Mr Gurinder Singh Oberai is one such semaritan, who not only has donated blood 54 times himself, but also sent 3 employees to our camp.

Be the envy of others in the next year too. I hope to see every medically fit CAT coming forward to donate blood to save yet another life in distress.

See you all at the next camp in February.

CAT Supreet