On April 24, 2011, Human Unity Day was celebrated in Chicago with much enthusiasm as always. Various saints spoke their personal experiences with Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji Maharaj. Many spoke of the social reforms that he made such as simple marriages, no dowry, and no drinking. Some saints spoke of how he promoted the Truth into the whole world.

A Blood Donation Drive was also organized on the same day at Carpentersville Bhawan.

The Drive was scheduled from 10am to 2:30 pm with the Red Cross Service. 37 saints registered for donating blood. Additionally few individuals from neighboring cities registered Online. Nineteen units of blood were donated. Four saints had to be declined due to reasons such as low iron level, etc.

Due to short staffing, Red Cross was not able to serve all the saints who registered to donate. Fifteen saints who registered were not able to donate.  Due to such a high number of saints who were not able to donate, another Blood Drive has been scheduled with Red Cross, for July 17th, 2011.

As for as the saints' Spirit to Donate blood is concerned, this year was no different. The same enthusiasm, the same strong desire to donate persists. Most of the saints stated that they are fortunate to be blessed with good health and this is one way to express their gratitude to their Creator and help another fellow being in need. As a good number of our saints went to India to attend Samagam and were not able to donate due to the twelve months restriction; many of them complained that twelve months is too long a period and one saint even said that it was unfair. One saint was very excited that she finally could donate blood this time as she did not go to India to attend Samagam this year.

It was most inspiring to see that two of our young saints who turned 16 this year to be so enthusiastic to be able to donate blood (with parental permission), and the parents were equally enthusiastic.

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