The holiday season is upon us. So, unfortunately, is a time of year when the need for life-saving blood is the highest. On Saturday December 17th, Rock Oak of Clarence (the retirement community located on the south side of Main Street across from Spaulding Lake) is once again inviting the entire Main Street Clarence community to join them from 7am-2pm for their holiday blood drive.

Since 2010, the folks over at Rock Oak of Clarence have been sponsoring regular blood drives with unyts, the local WNY community blood bank. In that time, they’ve held over 35 drives and collected enough blood products to save over 1400 lives right here in our local community.

Over time, those drives were moved from the Main Street community’s Resident Center a few minutes up the road to the unyts neighborhood Donation Center in the Eastern Hills Mall, opposite the Dipson Theatres. The move allowed the drives to handle more people and offer greater comforts than a portable drive could.

Noel Dill of Rock Oak is quick to remind everyone that while Rock Oak residents have always shown up to give back to their community (some donors like Fred Kintzel, shown in our cover photo, have made over 30 donations at Rock Oak drives since 2010), the drive is open to anyone 17 years or older (16 with parent’s permission) and 110 pounds or heavier. “over the years, we’ve had tremendous support from the Clarence community and other ‘friends of Rock Oak’ who come join us. Every donation makes a life-saving difference to someone in need of blood.”

The drive features lots of small touches that make people feel welcome. Since their very first drive, Noel’s wife Shelly Dill has been hand-painting ornaments for everyone who attends.

Bike Friendly Main Street Effort Reaches Out to GoBikeBuffalo

Over the past couple of years we’ve been increasingly involved in the efforts to promote a bike-friendly Main Street. Melany Arrison, the Town’s Bicycling Advocate, is organizing a group to represent Clarence at the GoBikeBuffalo Solstice Soiree December 21st from 6-9pm at 500 Seneca in Buffalo. If you like cycling and work, live or play in our Clarence community, we’d love to have you come along. While you can register online, Arrison is organizing a Clarence Table. Drop us a line at info@discovermainstreet.org and we can put her in touch with you.

Save the Date for the Winter Blues Pub Crawl January 21st

Speaking of a bike-friendly Main street, another bike-friendly pub crawl is in the works. The Winter Blues Pub Crawl is slated for January 21st. The event will be hosted by Gianni Mazias of 10325 Main Street. Full details will be announced in the coming days here on Discover Main street.