OCILLA, Ga. (WALB) — The Ocilla-Irwin Chamber of Commerce will hold its 11th annual Glenn Roberts Memorial Blood Drive soon.

Dill’s Ace Hardware, located at 352 Fitzgerald Highway in Ocilla, will host the blood drive from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, April 17.

The blood drive is held in conjunction with One Blood.

Organizers encourage participants to make an appointment to reserve their donation time by calling the chamber at (229) 468-9114.

Those without appointments are welcome to donate as well, but organizers say with no appointment, you might experience a wait of 15-20 minutes.

The blood drive honors the memory of Glenn Roberts, a local welder, who got sick in 2015 and died shortly thereafter.

According to Traci Harper with the Ocilla-Irwin Chamber, Roberts lived long enough to see the very first blood drive held in his honor.

Since his death, the chamber and community have held the blood drive to help give the gift of life to others in memory of Roberts.

“You can’t make blood. It’s one of the things that just only God can do and that’s the only thing that can save your life sometimes,” said Harper. “We have a little boy here in town who is battling a cancer where he’s already had to have blood. And those kind of things just touch your heart forever. And it makes us a little village of people who want to be there and do that for each other.”

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