Today, the Montreal Canadiens held their 43rd annual blood drive at the Bell Centre.
Since its inception in 1981 at the initiative of Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau and sports commentator Claude Mouton, the annual blood drive has gathered 38,147 donations. Every day, Héma-Québec needs to collect 1,000 donations to meet the demands of the province's hospitals.
For the 43rd time, the organization partnered with Héma-Québec and invited fans to the Bell Centre to roll up their sleeves and donate blood for the worthy cause. As always, members of the organization were on hand all day to meet fans and thank them for their contributions.
While the current players practiced in Brossard this morning, members of the Canadiens alumni were present at the Bell Centre to meet and greet the early birds, starting their day with an appointment with Héma-Québec's needle. Steve Bégin, Gilbert Delorme, and Lucien Deblois covered one of the first shifts.
Then, from 13:00, current players started arriving. Many of the fans who had given blood earlier in the day stuck around in the area reserved for autographs in the hope of meeting their favorite, and they were treated to Nick Suzuki, David Savard, Brendan Gallagher, Mike Matheson, Joel Armia, and Jake Evans.
I was allowed to interview Gallagher, who is in his 13th season with the Canadiens, and I asked if this was his 13th blood drive as well; he laughed and answered:
I think there were a few years, lockout shorted years, Covid years were maybe it didn't happen but it's been a few. It's always nice to get here and see all the people that are donating and numbers seem to be going up every year so it's good to see.
Asked if he had to coach some of his younger teammates before coming over, like Lane Hutson, for instance, who seems rather shy, he smiled before answering:
I think we do enough of these things, that all you've got to do is be yourself, that's all they want to see, people are here to meet us and have a quick conversation so just be yourself. Wherever you are, don't stress it too much, they're usually pretty happy.
Frequent donors will be glad to hear their assiduity hasn't gone unnoticed; I've asked the alternate captain if there were regulars he sees year in and year out, and he replied:
Definitely, there's a lot of the same faces which is good and then there's a lot of new faces as well, so it's a really good event and a really important cause, something we're happy to support.
Gallagher of all people knows how important causes related to health are, his mother was diagnosed with a stage-4 cancer of the brain called Glioblastoma three years ago and doctors gave her six to 18 months to live. Thankfully, the family got Della Gallagher the best possible care, including revolutionary medical interventions at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she is still receiving treatment; she's "doing her thing," as the veteran put it.
The blood drive will continue at the Bell Centre until 7:00 PM tonight, and whichever time you go to make your donation, some players will be there to meet you. The Canadiens will be back in action tomorrow night when they host the Los Angeles Kings at the Bell Centre.
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