The people of Palmerton were commended for their tireless charitable efforts during Monday's blood drive at the West End Fire Company.

"Miller-Keystone provides a plaque to the local leaders of the community and the businesses for anyone who has collected over 200 units," Miller-Keystone Blood Center's donor resources representative Marie D'Amato said. "Palmerton community, in 2016, collected 346 units. They are a wonderful group of people who are dedicated to the cause. They come and donate every eight weeks."Blood drive coordinator Alice Wanamaker accepted the commemorative plaque on behalf of the community."The success of this blood drive, continuing year after year, month after month, really speaks volumes to the Palmerton community," Wanamaker said. "They come out all the time, they come out when the weather's not great, they come out when they're busy and have other things to do."Ever-humble donors simply consider the donations a small way to help out the people in their community."I just consider it my civic duty, something I can do to help," Janice Murkel said. "I don't know how many gallons I've given."The fire hall had a steady stream of community members donating throughout the day. At the moment, Miller-Keystone is encouraging the youth to come out and provide a pint."The older population is aging," D'Amato said. "People can't donate anymore because of medications, surgeries, whatever you have. It's important that we encourage those younger donors to step up and replace those older people and start really filling in their shoes. We need them today, we need those young, healthy donors."Wanamaker and D'Amato's efforts have led them to the digital world, where they hope to attract the much-needed youth to contribute."We've expanded, the number of volunteers we have is amazing. One of the first things that Marie and I worked on together was getting the blood drive online," Wanamaker said, pointing out that donations can be scheduled at

www.giveapint.org.Wanamaker attributes the success of the Palmerton drives to the early efforts of George Ashman, the former coordinator, who still helps to encourage donations. Wanamaker hopes to continue to build off of his work and increase contributions."It's truly amazing, and a testament to him," she said. "This award is for him, and I hope I can continue to bring them back to Palmerton year after year."D'Amato said that while donations tend to escalate following an emergency, blood is needed year-round to supply local hospitals."We saw an increase in donors after the Orlando shootings," she said. "We saw a lot of people come in and donate for that, just because they felt that they needed to do something."It's something that you need to do all the time. It can't just be when something happens, because people need blood every day, whether it's a car accident, a premature baby or surgery."Wanamaker and D'Amato both praised the community for their charity, emphasizing that their contributions will help save the life of someone in their town, and that their efforts will continue as long as there is a need."When you give blood, it's probably going to help someone you've probably seen in the grocery store, or someone you've seen while driving down the street, someone you work out with at the gym. It's great to help your neighbors," Wanamaker said. "We'll keep running this blood drive as long as Miller-Keystone keeps coming back and volunteers keep coming out to donate."