While many folks were elbowing their way through Black Friday crowds, I went downtown Waukesha for a little peace and quiet. We don't have stores here that sell big screen TVs or the latest toy must-have, so it's no surprise that lines didn't start forming in the Thursday night cold. No surprise that most, if not all, downtown Waukesha stores opened at their regular hours instead of 5:00 a.m..
The first place I visited could have used, no, needed more people. I was only the second person visiting in the hour and a half since they had opened at 7:00. The blood drive had been advertised for months, many stores had the notice in their windows. The notice was in the papers, WaukeshaNOW and on a thousand fliers handed out at the Christmas Parade sponsored by the Blood Center of Wisconsin.
It was the first time I've donated on a bus. The bus was brought in because of the low numbers of appointments. Maybe if the bus was brought in earlier, a week earlier, the numbers wouldn't have been as low. For lack of a driver, the Blood Center bus wasn't in the Christmas Parade it sponsored. Blood drive signage on the bus in the parade may have helped the numbers.
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