The city of Griffin and Spalding County held a joint blood drive Thursday at the Griffin Regional Welcome Center. According to Spalding County Human Resources Director Bill Gay, the event was deemed a success.

“It’s going fine. It’s actually a little bit better than we thought it was going to be since it’s spring break,” Gay said.

As the event wound to a close, Gay said, “We had 64 people come in, but I don’t have a final count yet.”

Gay said the semiannual event, in addition to providing blood donations to those in need, is a means of honoring others.

“We do it twice a year. We do it on Sept. 11, obviously to honor public safety employees and to remember those in New York and Washington on 9/11. Then we try to do one about six months after that, around March,” he said.

Assistant to the City Manager James Landham said the blood drive is something city employees anticipate each year.

“We always look forward to this every year. We always support the Red Cross and this is always one of the major events that we participate in,” Landham said. “It takes a small amount of time on the employees’ part, but we feel it makes a tremendous difference in the lives of people, both locally and statewide, who may be in need of a blood donation.”

Landham said that in addition to doing a good deed, an aspect of bragging rights is also on the line.

“One of the things that’s always enjoyable in the end is that we turn it into a kind of friendly competition to see if the city can provide more units of blood than the county, so that’s always fun,” he said.

One donor, Lanny Hook, an employee with the Spalding County Parks and Recreation Department, explained his reason for participating, saying, “I come in every time the county has a blood drive and every time I receive notification that they need blood. I figure there may be some kid out there that needs it. If somebody needs it, you ought to donate it.”