By John Heuvelman, American Red Cross

Within the first moments of meeting Kevin Koontz, it is clear he is a man with many passions.  Throughout the conversation, Kevin expounded on his love of music, family and friends, education, performing, and giving back to the community. 

Prior to his retirement, Kevin was a music teacher for 31 years at the elementary and high school levels in Hazelwood and Ritenour.  When the public schools began cutting back on music education programs, he made the move to Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School (MICDS) where he continued his mission for many more years.  He has also stayed active throughout his life as a member of numerous church singing groups and professional choirs.  He was even a performer in Muny productions for five years.  As a teacher and performer for many years, he has a deep and lifelong passion for sharing music with students and the public. As Kevin explains, “music is and always has been a huge part of my life.”

Kevin has been a blood donor throughout his adult years and frequently donates at the West County Blood Donor Center in Chesterfield, MO.  Initially a whole blood donor, he began donating platelets about ten years ago.  From that point on it was his goal to make the 18 annual donations that would earn him a spot on the plaque honoring donors who reach that milestone at each donor center, a goal he has met most years since then. 

During his time as a teacher at MICDS, Kevin met a young man whose life made a special impact upon him.  Charlie Gillis was a student in one of Kevin’s fifth-grade classes.  Kevin says he was a sweet, kind boy who he found especially endearing.  His mother Jenn was a teacher and colleague of Kevin’s at MICDS, and as members of the same church, their lives were intertwined.  After his high school graduation from MICDS, Charlie went on to enroll at the University of Kansas.  On a trip home from KU to St. Louis during his junior year in 2018 tragedy struck, and Charlie lost his life in an automobile accident. 

Charlie’s organs were donated, and this gift led to a dedicated effort on the part of Charlie’s family to give the gift of life to others wherever possible.  They formed a blood donor team called Give Like Charlie and have since been active in making frequent donations and recruiting others to join the team and donate in Charlie’s memory.  Word spread, and currently the team is nearly 400 members strong. It recently ranked 66th among blood donor teams in terms of the number of lives impacted by its donations, right between UC Berkeley and UCLA with 28,000 lives impacted.  This is ahead of many large universities and entire Red Cross regions in the United States and is a wonderful tribute to Charlie Gillis’ memory.

Earlier in 2025, Kevin began to volunteer for the Red Cross, further building upon the impact he has made through his lengthy history of donations.  He frequently volunteers as Blood Donor Ambassador at both the West County Blood Donor Center in Chesterfield as well as mobile blood drives. He tries to work at least one Donor Ambassador shift per week when his schedule allows and helped out in the disaster response to the tornadoes that struck the St. Louis area in March of this year.  Through these efforts he has gotten to know many of the Red Cross employees, donors, and volunteers, and has enthusiastically recruited others to donate and join the Give Like Charlie team. 

Kevin’s passion for donating his time as well as his blood is plain to see as he talks about Charlie and the impact the Give Like Charlie team has had on those in need of lifesaving blood.His motto is a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin:  “When you are good to others you are best to yourself”.  A motto Kevin truly lives by through his donations of blood products and his volunteer efforts.

If you are interested in joining or following a blood donation team such as Give Like Charlie or others, you can find out more by using the Red Cross Donor app and clicking on the Impact icon at the bottom right.  If you would like to learn more about the activities of the Give Like Charlie team, look them up on Instagram at @givelikecharlie.  Kevin also has information on his Instagram account  @kevin.koontz.