Football-loving Great Falls kindergartner Troy Ross turns 7 in June, a milestone celebrated throughout his community and beyond and at least partly made possible thanks to the generosity of blood donors.

For the fourth straight year, the Ross family is teaming up with the American Red Cross to host a series of blood drives across Montana in Troy’s name, honoring and encouraging the blood donors who helped save their son’s life and the lives of others.

“Montana is a pretty special place,” Troy’s mom Callie said. “The fact that we have new donors -- and donors we didn’t know who say they donate because they heard Troy’s story -- it shows that this is so much bigger than Troy and our family, and that’s what we hoped for. We wanted to make a big impact beyond us.”

Diagnosed with a rare immune disease in 2017, Troy has received more than 90 blood transfusions and was in a fight for his life in the early going.  Over Labor Day weekend four years ago, Troy was airlifted to the Seattle Children’s Hospital, and over the course of the next month, three-quarters of his blood supply had to be replaced.

But now he’s doing much better. Treatments he once received every other week have now been cut back to once every eight weeks. And the hope is that after the first of the year that treatment won’t be necessary at all.

“He’s doing really well,” said Callie, who teaches third grade in Great Falls. “He hasn’t had an active bleed for well over a year.”   

Troy loves all things football – “that’s his jam, that’s his ultimate favorite,” Callie said. His dad Wes is the head coach at Great Falls Central Catholic, and throughout Troy’s battle, the Montana football community has come together to support the Ross family, especially during the TroyStrong blood drives.

“You can win and lose games but something like this binds us all together,” Callie said. “It’s young people who play on these teams and they know Troy, they know Troy’s story, and hopefully they become blood donors and encourage other people to be donors.”

This year, TroyStrong drives will be held in seven Montana cities:

·         June 2 – Havre, noon-5 p.m., Fifth Avenue Christian Church, 2015 5th Ave.

·         June 23 – Kalispell, noon-6 p.m., Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 126 N. Meridian Road

·         June 23 – Helena, noon-6 p.m., Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 3150 N. Montana Ave.

·         June 23 – Billings, 12:30–5:30 p.m., Harvest Church, 1235 W. Wicks Lane

·         June 24 – Missoula, noon-6:30 p.m., Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 2401 N. Reserve St.

·         June 24 -- Great Falls, noon-6 p.m., Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 1300 28th St. S.

·         June 29 – Bozeman, 1-6 p.m., Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 300 N. Willson Ave.

Schedule an appointment to donate at one of these drives by visiting RedCrossBlood.org and entering the sponsor code TroyStrong or call 800-RED-CROSS. A blood donation takes less than an hour and can potentially save more than one life.

“I’ve said countless times this is a total miracle,” Wes said. “Without that blood being available he wouldn’t be here today.”