THE GIFT OF LIFE: Donating blood at the Arcie Sapp blood drive

Ashland Optimist Club member Chris Felmlee donates blood at the Arcie Sapp Memorial Blood Drive on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2024

By: Ernie Wren
The “Arcie Sapp Memorial Blood Drive” has been an Ashland community event since 2005. It was originally established in memory of Arcie Sapp, who was burned in an explosion on January 7th of 2005.

Mr. Sapp worked for the MFA Oil Company when he was injured at a fuel station in Marshall. He passed away 15 days later.

The Cedar Valley Riders Club and the Ashland Optimist Club then established a Red Cross blood drive in his honor, in recognition of the blood donations that were used to help Mr. Sapp.

Arcie was well known for his love of family and friends, his passion for horses, and volunteering at the Ashland Optimist Club.

Ashland Optimist Club member Letitia DenHartog donates blood at the Arcie Sapp Memorial Blood Drive

Barrett Glascock, Ashland Optimist board member and friend of Arcie, states that, “He was a great member of both the Optimist Club and the Cedar Valley Saddle Club, and a hard worker in both clubs. He has been dearly missed for almost twenty years.”

While Mr. Sapp has been gone since 2005, his legacy and importance to the community lives on, in part to the annual blood drive in his honor.