The Health Initiatives Committee encourages Brothers not to forget our Fraternity’s rich history in blood donation and blood banking due to the efforts of Dr. Charles R. Drew. Known as the “Father of Blood Banking”, Brother Drew was born in 1904 in nearby Washington, DC, and was initiated into the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated through the Alpha Psi Chapter (Amherst College) in 1923. While serving as a Rockefeller Fellow at Columbia University’s renowned Presbyterian Hospital, New York, he developed methods of separating plasma, which increased the shelf life of plasma to two months. In 1940, the U.S. Surgeon General and the National Research Council organized a program to ship plasma to Britain in support of their war effort. Dr. Drew was tapped as the medical director of this project, which came to be known as the Blood for Britain campaign. Following the conclusion of the project the following year, the Red Cross enlisted him to start a pilot program that included innovations such as community donation centers in storefronts, factories and ‘bloodmobiles’. Dr. Drew was appointed director of the American Red Cross's first blood bank in 1941, which oversaw blood for use by the U.S. Army and Navy.

For additional information or requests for interviews with the Pi Lambda Lambda Chapter Basileus (President), Brother Ron Blanch, please contact the Chapter Editor, Brother Fred Wright  – 571.383.6019 – editorpllqpp@gmail.com | Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. founded on the campus of Howard University November 17, 1911.