At the Portland Beavers vs Salt Lake Bees baseball game last weekend, the American Red Cross honored a woman for her amazing contribution of 400 blood donations.

But even more amazing was when the woman rolled onto the baseball field in a wheelchair. She was handicapped but still gave far more blood than I could ever even imagine giving!

The last time I tried to give blood was about 3 years ago, and the experience was a nightmare. I hadn't eaten any breakfast and the only thing in my stomach was 2 cups of coffee. My vein closed up after the first test vial, and the gorilla behind the needle did a horrible job of trying to find the vein before I finally asked him to stop. I almost passed out and had a nasty bruise on my arm that turned multiple colors over the next week or so.

Not a fun experience, and I get sweaty palms just thinking about getting poked with a needle.

I'm always challenged when I see heroic acts like this woman's 400 blood donations. It makes me want to shrug of my pathetic needle phobia and step up to the plate to help people who are badly in need of blood. Maybe my kids will need me to give blood for them someday too.