By Clarice Nassif Ransom, Red Cross volunteer

Donating blood is as easy as whistling for Christopher Ullman, a four-time international whistling champion and member of the Whistler’s Hall of Fame. During his lifetime, he has contributed a total of 11 gallons of blood to the American Red Cross and considers this a gift of life to others.

“I will probably never meet anyone who has benefited from my blood donation, but it is amazing what you can do to help save lives by simply rolling up a sleeve and donating blood,” said Ullman, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia.

Ullman first donated blood in 1981 for a high school blood drive and discovered that the blood donation process was easy and comfortable. He found his heart for serving others in this act of kindness and credits his parents with instilling in him the importance of giving back to the community.

“Use your gift to make the world, or your little part of the world, a better place,” he said. “I realized in high school, after my first blood donation, that it was cool to help save lives. Once I heard that most people can give blood, but most do not, I decided to stick with it, especially because there are frequent blood shortages.”

Ullman’s next overall goal is to increase his blood donation by 1.5 gallons, achieving a new grand total of 12.5 gallons of blood donated to the American Red Cross.

“There is something almost spiritual about donating blood,” Ullman said, describing how seeing, and sometimes holding, the bag that contains the pint of blood he donated makes him feel. “You get to provide this life-giving fluid that, moments earlier, was in your body—and now will be transfused into another human body to help save that person’s life.”

Besides donating blood, Ullman contributed as a board member for the American Red Cross chapter that serves Northern Virginia for three years. He says that the Red Cross has many opportunities to give back to the community if a person is unable to donate blood, and he encourages everyone to consider sharing their time and talent.

Professionally, Ullman is president of Ullman Communications, a strategic advisory firm, the Strategic Communications Expert-in-Residence at Highpoint University in North Carolina and author of two books.

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National Blood Shortage

The Red Cross national blood supply has fallen by about 25% since early August. Right now, blood product distributions to hospitals are outpacing the number of blood donations coming in. We need your help -- schedule your blood donation today at RedCrossBlood.org