What began as a way for one Great Falls family to pay it forward for those who donated the blood that saved their son’s life has ballooned into something much bigger, impacting countless lives across Montana and beyond.

This summer marks the ninth year of TroyStrong Red Cross blood drives across the state after the Ross family launched these drives back in 2017 in honor of their son Troy. When he was just 2, Troy

was diagnosed with a rare immune disease and airlifted to Seattle, launching years of hospital stays, medical tests, procedures and medications. Nearly three-quarters of Troy’s blood supply had to be replaced along the way. But because of the generosity of blood donors, those blood products were available when Troy needed them most.

Troy celebrates his 11^th birthday in June and is a healthy athletic fourth-grader  – a world away from eight years ago when he was in a Seattle hospital bed fighting for his life.

“Troy’s just flying,” his dad Wes said. “He’s playing football and baseball right now and everything is going really well.

“It’s totally beyond words to think about how long ago that was and how blessed and lucky we are to be here.” 

The TroyStrong movement began as a single blood drive at Riverview Elementary School in Great Falls in 2017, where his mom Callie teaches. But over the years, that single drive grew into a series of drives across Montana from Helena to Kalispell, Havre to Dillon.

“It started out as a way for us just to take our minds off of something beyond our control,” Wes said. “It’s really turned into a way that we can pay it forward. For us to be able to help other people is really a gratifying feeling.”

Wes has coached football at Cascade High, Great Falls High and Great Falls Central Catholic, and the Montana athletics community went all in, pouring their support behind the Ross family and their work to help other families going through similar struggles.

In eight years, that single school drive has become 65 total, collecting a jaw-dropping 1,501 units of lifesaving blood and seeing 302 first-time donors come through the door. Each blood donation can save more than one life, so that’s at least 1,500 families across Montana and beyond impacted by this generosity.

“My family is just so impressed and humbled by the number of supporters who continually donate on a regular basis and make it a priority to help someone else,” Wes said. “It’s just humbling to see that this thing has gone almost a decade and how many people we’ve been able to help.”

This summer, eight TroyStrong drives are planned, all in June.

• June 2 – Missoula, noon-6 p.m., University of Montana Adams Center, 32 Campus Drive
•  June 10 – Kalispell, 12:30–5:30 p.m., American Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 126 N. Meridian Road
•  June 18 – Havre, noon-5 p.m., St. Jude Parish Center, 440 7^th Ave.
• June 18 – Bozeman, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., American Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 221 E. Oak St., suite 1F & 1G
• June 19 – Great Falls, 1-6 p.m., American Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 1300 28^th St. S.
• June 24 – Dillon, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Bulldog Athletic & Recreation Center, 710 S. Atlantic St.
• June 25 – Helena, noon-5:30 p.m., American Red Cross Blood Donation Center, 3150 N. Montana Ave.
• June 26 – Bozeman, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Montana State University Student Union Building, 751 W. Grant St.

These drives come at a critical time. Collecting blood often becomes more challenging in the summer as people become busy with vacations and activities. But the need for lifesaving blood never takes a summer break.

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 (800-733-2767). A blood donation takes less than an hour, and a single donation can save more than one life.