Courtesy photo
FORT LORAMIE – Jane Pleiman donated blood in honor of her injured son Kevin, then made the rounds of the St. Michael’s Hall blood drive with her cell phone camera, scanning the rows of full donor beds. “Thank you everybody!” said Jane. “Kevin is going to appreciate this!”
Kevin has been in a hospital bed since Dec. 17 when enveloping flames from a lumber fire left him with mostly third degree burns over 70% of his body. His family dedicated the Feb. 20 St. Michael’s blood drive in his honor, and the video he would watch told only part of the story.
The donor beds remained full throughout the day. The blood drive totaled 329 donors, rivaling the 358 donor turnout for the 2022 blood drive in memory of Irene Boerger. There were 308 whole blood donors, 242 whole blood units donated, and 21 platelet and plasma donors.
“It makes you feel good, that’s for sure,” said Jane Pleiman. “I thought the blood drive was something he’d appreciate and a lot of people who wanted to do something would like it. When he sees this, he’ll get emotional.”
Perhaps the greatest tribute to Kevin was the surprising total of 37 first time blood donors. Shelby County leads the Solvita region in donor loyalty. St. Michael’s Hall sees familiar faces at its every two month blood drives, but very few new donors. At its December 2023 blood drive there were two.
Houston High junior Sophia Waesch made her third lifetime donation and told her dad David, “You should come down with me!” He took her advice and made his first lifetime donation.
Another first time donor was Jay Ruhenkamp, Kevin’s partner for 26 years at Rapid Development in Fort Loramie. “I don’t know why I didn’t, I always had an excuse,” said Jay. “But this is the perfect day to start.”
“If anyone in Fort Loramie needs help, Fort Loramie rallies around them,” said Jane Poeppelman, who coordinates the St. Michael’s Hall blood drives. “Even more for Kevin because he is so well known.”
“There is pride in donating blood,” she said. “It’s a great tribute to the family and to the community, and to people not in Fort Loramie today who donated in other places. I had a number of people tell me they hadn’t donated in years but decided to come back and donate for Kevin.”
Kevin is a father of five boys and a dedicated St. Michael’s Hall blood donor with 69 lifetime donations. He is in the rare circumstance now of receiving both blood products and skin grafts from Solvita.
Kevin’s wife Shelly said he has undergone more than 18 surgeries for skin grafting and received 27 transfusions of blood, platelets, and plasma. The family surpassed their goal of registering 300 donors for the blood drive on the eve of what may be Kevin’s final surgery.
“Hopefully it will his last one,” said Kevin’s father Tom Pleiman, who made his 102nd lifetime blood donation Tuesday. “They’re doing grafts on his back and bottom area.”
“That first week he was in critical condition for several days, he was burned so severely,” said Tom, and that Kevin “looked like a mummy” with bandages covering his face. He remembers the reaction of Kevin’s youngest son Quinton when they removed the facial bandages and there was no disfigurement. “The first time Quenton saw him he said, ‘Dad, you look like dad!’”
Donors wrote personal notes to Kevin and signed a “get well” card constructed by Quinton and his brothers Anderson and Abram. They were the first to sign it with the message, “Thanks for the gift of life for my dad and others!” In his tiny handwriting at the very bottom Quinton added, “I love you dad.”
St. Michael’s Hall host blood drives every two months all sponsored by the Fort Loramie Community Service Club, Fort Loramie American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, St. Michael’s Church, and the St. Michael’s Knights of St. John. Osgood Bank sponsored Tuesday’s lunch for the Solvita staff.
Schedule an appointment to donate with Solvita (formerly Community Blood Center) on the Donor Time app, by calling 937-461-3220, or at www.donortime.com.
