Giving the Gift of Life One Hundred Times Over

Patti Garcia is a positive person. In fact, she is a B-positive person. She knows this because since she was in her 20’s, she has been a regular blood donor to South Texas Blood and Tissue.

Giving anywhere from four to eight donations every year, Patti reached a significant achievement – she reached her 100^th lifetime donation at the same time San Antonio College was set to mark its 100^th anniversary.

So she decided to make her milestone donation at SAC in honor of the college’s Centennial.

Radio Days
Patti first came to SAC as a student, where she discovered that the college had a radio-TV-film program. She quickly decided that would be her major.

“I always wanted to be a disk jockey since I was a little girl,” she said.

After graduating from SAC, she went on work 30 years in local radio, both as an on-air broadcaster and working behind the scenes in production, promotion, and human resources.

Last year, she was inducted into the San Antonio Radio Hall of Fame in honor of her distinguished career. She is still involved with local radio as an active member of the San Antonio Society of Radio Broadcasters. 

She returned to SAC in the summer of 2023 as an audio-visual specialist in the radio-television-film program.   

A Lifetime Helping Others
Patti became a blood donor because her grandfather was one.

“I really looked to my grandparents and what they did to develop into the person that I became,” said Patti.

She believes she began giving blood around the same time she started attending SAC. She has always given to South Texas Blood and Tissue. Over the years, she has donated more than 12 gallons of blood to help others.

She is grateful to have the opportunity to save lives.

“It's always a thrill when South Texas Blood and Tissue sends me a text message a few days after I donated blood and says, ‘your blood was just sent to this hospital to help a patient,’” she said.

Planning A Milestone Donation
Last year, at a KISS-FM blood drive, she learned she was nearing her 100^th lifetime donation.

“I was chitchatting with some folks, and we brought up my profile on my phone from South Texas Blood and Tissue. I was looking at my chart, which has all of my stats in there,” she said, adding, “while looking at my stats I saw that I was up in the 90s for lifetime donations and that's when I set my goal.”

This year she began actively planning on when to make her 100^th donation.

Checking around campus, Patti found that the SAC chapter of the Student Nurses Association, with help from the college’s Iota Mu Chapter of the Alpha Delta Nu Nursing Honor Society, would be holding a blood drive in October. Patti contacted Dr. Daniel Flores, an associate professor in the nursing department, and told him she would be making her 100^th donation.

Lucky Draw Blood Drive took place on Thursday, Oct. 31, and Patti was there at 2 p.m. to make her donation. However, it turned out she had to wait just a little longer. The blood drive received more donors than anticipated, and she waited half an hour to give blood.

Dr. Flores said there was an outpouring of donors who showed up for the drive. The original goal was to get 46 people to give blood. However, to their surprise, they received more than 100 potential donors and 82 units of blood were successfully collected.   

After her donation, a representative from South Texas Blood and Tissue gave Patti a certificate to mark her significant achievement. She also received a gift bag from SAC’s Office of Marketing and Strategic Communication.  

For Patti, making the donation in honor of SAC, was her way to show her appreciation to the college.

“It's my gift back for everything that SAC has given me. I had a 30-year career in radio, and they inducted me into the San Antonio Radio Hall of Fame last summer. And I couldn't have done that if I hadn't have walked on to this campus back in the 80s and said, ‘oh, look at that. There's my dream right there.’”

-SAC-