More than 100 people rolled up their sleeves to give the gift of life at Baldwin EMC’s fifth annual Power of Giving Drive last week in Summerdale.

Karen Moore, communications director for Baldwin EMC, said this year’s event was even more successful than previous events. Moore said the goal for this years’ event was 80 pints of blood, but the donations exceeded her expectations. Hours before the blood drive was supposed to end the goal had already been reached.

The final tally for blood donors was 113 individuals who attempted to give blood. Only 95 individuals were able to actually give blood, so the drive collected a total of 95 pints.

“The blood drive was extremely successful. It was a successful day,” Moore said.

The blood drive began at 8 a.m. last Thursday with representatives from LifeSouth Community Blood Centers available to process blood donations.

While saving lives by donating blood is typically enough motivation for donors to roll up their sleeves, all donors at this event were registered to win two autographed footballs. Alabama head coach Nick Saban signed one football and Auburn head coach Gene Chizik signed the other.

Moore said the giveaways were a little extra motivation and the Iron Bowl theme of this year’s event may have drawn in more blood donors. No matter why the donors ended up walking through the door, Moore was very pleased with the turnout.

This year’s Power of Giving event also featured a free health fair, which also offered a lot of pre-diagnostic health and wellness screenings, including blood pressure screenings at no cost. Local medical professionals donated their time and services for this event.

As part of the event, non-perishable food items were collected and donated to Catholic Social Services in Robertsdale. The EMC also collected all types of pet food on behalf of the Baldwin Countyn Humane Society, because according to Moore, humans aren’t the only ones who may be in need of a helping hand.

Moore said a total of 950 pounds of food were collected, with 300 pounds of that total including pet food. Moore was happy with that total, especially since this is the first year the drive tried to collect food.

The prizes offered, according to Moore, may have made this year’s drive more successful than previous years.

“Maybe because we had such great prizes,” she said, “the drive was so successful.”

The football signed by Nick Saban went home with Joey Neighbors, and the football signed by Gene Chizik went home with Rant Brock.