Merrimack Teen Plans Annual Blood Drive for Monday

This weekend, while most kids will be taking advantage of having an extra day off from school, 13-year-old Brandon Snell will spend part of the weekend setting up for a blood drive at St. James United Methodist Church.

On Monday, he'll spend half his day off volunteering at the event.

And it's not just any blood drive, it's an annual blood drive Snell put into motion four years ago, when he was just 9-years-old, that honors some of the country's most important heroes: veterans.

Asked why he started it, the Brandon shrugged his shoulders and said "I really don't remember."

Snell's father Brian has a better recollection. He said he, his wife Kerri and Brandon were volunteering at a blood drive in Londonderry when Brandon mused about why there wasn't a blood drive closer to home that they could volunteer at.

"We said, 'talk to Pastor Sharon (Lovejoy),' maybe there could be," Brian Snell said.

Since that first year, Brandon Snell's Heroes Blood Drive has been an annual family project that has always been about helping other people.

Blood regularly is a critical need and with the destruction left behind by Hurricane Sandy last week, there is no time like the present to be a donor.

Last year, Brandon Snell told the Merrimack Journal he hoped to collect 200 pints.

In its first year, Brian Snell said the drive collected 76 pints. Then in the second year it was 119. The father and son had different recollections of the 2011 but it was somewhere around 90 or 100 they think.

Last year, Brandon won the Red Cross' Youth Hero Award  and certificated from the Governor's Youth Award, for the effort he puts into these blood drives.

Brian Snell said this is the third year the blood drive has been held around Veterans Day. In 2009, they held it in August in honor of the men and women in the fire and police departments who lost their lives in the World Trade Center attacks.

He said with the wars going on, they decided to refocus it to the people who've served this country.

People who wish to donate are encouraged to make an appointment, but it is not required. Brandon Snell's 4th annual Heroes Blood Drive will be held Monday, Nov. 12, from 2-7 p.m. at St. James United Methodist Church, 646 Daniel Webster Highway.

Come out and help make this year's blood drive the most successful yet.