Since 1964, Ted Cook has been the blood donation drive coordinator at St. John Catholic Church in Westminster. Since 1998 alone, Cook has been behind 6,658 units — a unit being roughly a pint — of blood donated from the church.

On Wednesday evening, after receiving an award from the Western Maryland Chapter of the American Red Cross in recognition of more than 40 years of service coordinating blood drives, Cook explained why he did it.

“In World War II, my mother and my aunt donated 10 gallons of blood each,” he said, equivalent to about 80 units of blood for each woman. Cook became involved coordinating blood drives after he set out to personally match his family members’ donations — all 20 gallons of blood himself, during his lifetime.

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