By Michael Bowman

As a 17-year-old high school student, Gary Crawford was given a T-shirt for his first blood donation. Over many years of continued blood donations, Gary’s collection of T-shirts grew but he rarely wore them. Instead, they occupied a significant amount of storage space in his closet.

But Gary’s wife, Marjorie, had a better idea. 

“I'd heard of other people making quilts out of t-shirts. We just decided to do the same thing with the blood t-shirts because we had plenty of them.”

Gary received his first blood donation t-shirt back in 1979 as a high school student at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. While the idea of donating blood to help people motivated Gary to make his first blood donation, getting a free T-shirt with a humorous design was also an incentive. “They said there was a chicken on it. It was a comical chicken,” Gary recalled. “And it said, ‘Don't be a chicken, give blood.’ I can't pass on a t-shirt with a chicken on it.”

Following high school, Gary lived in various locations around Louisiana including New Orleans and Natchitoches before moving to Wynne, Arkansas in 1994. At each stop, he continued to donate blood and collect T-shirts. Right now, his total includes nearly 150 units of blood and 42 t-shirts.

While receiving a T-shirt is one of the perks of donating blood, Gary’s primary motivation continues to be helping people. “I give blood because it helps others. And it's just a good thing to do.”  And Gary’s wife Marjorie knows from personal experience how blood donors can have a positive impact on the lives of others.

“At one time I was in the hospital, and I was given 22 units of blood,” Marjorie shared.

“We were in New Orleans, and I gave through one of the local hospitals,” said Gary. “And fortunately, when she needed those blood donations, they covered her for it. 

And seeing how donating blood helped his wife, Gary continued giving. And getting T-shirts. A lot of T-shirts.

Marjorie’s idea for sewing a quilt came from an advertisement for a company that makes quilts out of old T-shirts. But her inspiration for quilting came from her mother.  “She crocheted and knitted. But I remember her working on quilts quite a bit. In fact, she made a quilt for every grandchild before she passed away. And she had 14 grandchildren. So, I had a little inspiration from her.”

While Marjorie had experience sewing, she had never sewn a quilt. “And I just experimented with it. The first quilt I made didn’t turn out very good, but it gave me some good practice. By the time I did the one with the blood t-shirts, that one came out a whole lot better than the first one.”

According to Marjorie, the process of sewing a quilt out of T-shirts was a time-consuming process that spanned several weeks. “You're doing 42 T-shirts. It takes a little while to cut them out as I'm cutting off the sleeves, the collar, the sides and everything. I used both sides of the T-shirt. Once they were all cut, I spread them out on my living room floor to figure out what order I wanted to put them. And then once I figured out the order, I numbered them and started sewing them together. Sewing was the easiest part.”

The result of her hard work is a queen size quilt that is not only beautiful but functional. “We use it on our bed,” said Marjorie. “I told her that represents the different times where you or I gave blood,” said Gary. “You realize that covered almost fifty years? Fifty years! I now feel old.”

Marjorie’s handiwork is more than a creative way to showcase Gary’s blood donation history. It represents a lifetime of Gary’s dedication to helping others through blood donations.