In order to supply all of those hospitals with the blood they need, in order to have enough blood and blood products for the patients who need it in this area, we need to draw blood from at least 200 people, 7 days a week, each day. That actually adds up to about 6,000 units a month of blood.

I guess you could say this is a small taste of what motorists could expect with the I-64 (Highway 40) project that starts next year.

We're still working on it, and we're at least a month away from having this resolved. We want the results. We're not just going to spend the money.

The protest in 1999 certainly raised the level of discussion that wasn't happening before. It's a valuable thing to bring all these groups together to continue to improve the level of inclusion on highway projects, but we are still not there yet.

We also expect events downtown, including Cardinal games, to cause major delays through the project.

How many people will change routes? How many people will flex hours? How many people will telecommute? Carpool? Etc. This is a challenge. People do want answers now, but we don't have them.

It will just be a fun day and celebration from the growth that we've experienced here at the donor center. We can't thank a donor enough, actually, because they're giving something really almost more precious than money, they're giving a part of themselves and without them, what would we do? The patients wouldn't have the blood they need.

We're willing to spend that amount of money if, as a collective group, we can all come up with a good plan.

Blacks began to sing out of necessity because they couldn't speak. We wanted to honor that.