Richard Packman first donated blood after a family at his church organized a blood drive because their child had been diagnosed with cancer.

More than two decades later and after more than 1,000 hours, Packman sat Friday morning in a blue chair inside Vitalant’s office in the James R. Thompson Center to make his 500th blood donation. Shiny party streamers and posters surrounded the chair he often sits in for nearly two hours while donating platelets, the cells in the blood that are involved in the body’s clotting process.