I admit to being a little bit obsessed with people giving blood, probably because I’ve never been big enough to do it myself, since you have to weigh something like 110 lbs. Ever since high school I’ve walked past dozens and dozens of blood drives and shrugged sheepishly at the tables, feeling like a total jerk for keeping all of my blood, wanting to stop and explain, “I’d love to give you my blood, but you won’t take it.” So this guy, who has donated 30 gallons of blood, is maybe a little bit my hero. He donates every 56 days, which is as often as you’re allowed, and that equals 243 times and counting. If you figure that every donation saves, according to the blood people, three lives, that’s, what, around 729? It’s pretty impressive.

Today he’s cutting the ribbon on the new Federal Way Blood Center, only the second in South King County. (The other is in Tukwila.) Each Blood Center needs about 900 donors per day to meet demand, and anyone in good health who is over 18 and 110 lbs. can donate. The new Federal Way center is open Sundays 9 - 5, 12 - 8 Monday and Tuesday, and 8 - 4 Wednesday and Thursday. You can even set up a donation time online.