One of the best things about living in a small town is that when trouble comes, so do your neighbors, ready to help. Natchitoches utility lineman Mike Lacaze is battling cancer, but he is not fighting alone.

A group of friends, family, fellow city workers, and area residents came together to sponsor a blood drive in his name Thursday, July 11 at the Natchitoches Events Center’s lobby. The Lifeshare staff were kept busy throughout the day as people came in from all over the area to donate, often having to wait to do so due to the crowd. The event’s goal was 12 units of blood. That goal was easily met in the first few hours of the event. By lunchtime, the drive had passed the mark of 30 units of blood, with much more to come.  Mike Lacaze’s blood drive garnered a phenomenal number of donations that absolutely crushed the day’s goal of 12 units.

The donations are urgently needed throughout the region as there is no substitute for human blood. In an earlier blood drive in 2021, Philip Maxfield of Lifeshare Blood Center said our state needs 531 units of O+ blood, the most commonly used type, in order to have a safe and adequate supply. For most of that year, the state had only a precarious half day supply of blood. Surgeries, emergency transfusions, and burn victims all require blood, sometimes quite a lot of it. Cancer patients account for about half of the blood used in our region. The need is constant, urgent, and our help is desperately needed. We will never know who, but it is certain that at least one life will be saved and many more made better by the men and women who donated.

The blood drive held in Mike Lacaze’s name was much more than a blood drive. It was a microcosm of everything that is right and good about our country. People of every race and walk of life came together to help a neighbor in need. The blood drive was a prime example of America at its best.

The Natchitoches Parish Journal extends its best wishes to Mike Lacaze for a speedy recovery.