DAYTON, Ohio – Beavercreek donor Debbie Besl was so inspired by the premier of the “Big 6 Platelet Challenge” in 2019 she celebrated the six t-shirt designs by making a Big 6 Platelet T-Shirt quilt.  As a loyal platelet donor, Debbie never stops giving, so she kept on quilting.  She created a 2020 Big 6 quilt and presented it to Community Blood Center on Feb. 4 while making her 148^th lifetime donation.

Blankets are in the future for Debbie, because she will soon receive a “Donor for Life” fleece blanket for her 150^th donation milestone. Her husband David recently celebrated his 100^th and made his 110^th in the donor bed near Debbie on the day of the quilt presentation.

Debbie displayed the new quilt on her lap with her 2019 quilt hanging on the wall behind her.  Her 2020 quilt will soon find a place of honor in the apheresis donor room.

“I’m glad to have done it, I had a good time!” said Debbie.  She pointed to the 2019 quilt and talked about it’s journey.

“That was a year ago, I donated it in February of 2020,” she said. “With that one I was actually short a shirt! But If found it at one of the thrift stores. It was the yellow shirt I needed. It’s like it was meant to be!”

That’s part of the motivation behind the Big 6 Challenge.  Donate every two months in the calendar year to collect all six t-shirt designs. If you miss an opportunity, you risk your collection being incomplete. Debbie has been a platelet donor for decades and was glad to see platelet t-shirts making a comeback with the Big 6 Challenge.

“I used to wear my platelet shirts all the time,” she said. “It was back more than 20 years ago. I said, ‘You guys need to do platelet shirts again, people would wear them.’ You get to explain to people what apheresis is and what platelets do. When shirts were back again, I was thrilled!”

Debbie is happy to offer her arms for donating platelets, and her “long arm” quilting machine for turning the t-shits into a decorative blanket. “It’s real quick,” she said of the device.

“The fact that you have the Challenge for a year, and it’s the same thing with this one,” she said about uniqueness of the two quilts.  But she wonders how she will keep the thread going now that the 2021 Big 6 Challenge is taking a new direction.

The 2021 Challenge will offer t-shirts for three gifts, but will switch to socks for March and April, recycle bags for July and August, and mugs for November and December.

“It’s not all shirts this year, she lamented. “I can’t do it this year. But I do have a lot of t-shirts, and I have platelet shirts to use. We’ll see!”