Whether you vigilantly make New Year's resolutions every year or not, most everyone finds themselves taking time to reflect on life with the arrival of a new year. So as you ponder your potential in 2014, we encourage you to take up one particular "to do" for the new year that is a real lifesaver: Plan your emergency preparedness kit.

As students of all ages head back to school this fall, their minds—and their parents’ minds—are no doubt on hyper-drive pondering things like new class schedules, after-school activities, notebooks and folders, syllabi, locker combinations … the list goes on. But one very important item on everyone’s back-to-school checklist should be emergency preparedness, and it often gets pushed to the bottom of the list. The solution is easy ... have the conversation. 

In a crisis, it’s the blood on the shelves of local hospitals and blood banks that helps victims of emergencies and disaster. Since more than 25 percent of the local blood supply comes from donors under age 25 who participate in school-based events, summer presents a real challenge. Four years ago, Lifeblood created Donor Fest with a goal of collecting at least 300 units—our community’s typical daily usage—in a single-day event.