The Pacific Northwest Blood Services Region with the Red Cross on North Vancouver Avenue held its second annual Stormtroopers versus Klingons Blood Drive on Saturday, an attempt to attract more donors during a typically slow donation season by drawing on competition and creativity.

Donors could vote for either the Star Trek's warrior race, the Klingons, or Star Wars' soldiers, the Stormtroopers, to win the Galaxy Drive trophy. Last year, the Stormtroopers took the prize.

"I'm going Trek," Mary Medley, 58, said while resting at a table after donating a pint.

Her 26-year-old daughter, Chloe, and her friend, Leah Rivendell, hesitated.

"I like both!" Rivendell said. Chloe Medley agreed. As science fiction fans, it would be hard to choose.

Nearly 20 members of Star Wars costuming organizations, the 501st Legion and the Rebel Legion, and Star Trek organization, Starfleet International, wandered among the donor stations in full gear and posed for photos.

"I'm going to have to look at all the costumes," Rivendell said, with camera in hand. "Probably hang out with them a bit."

Mary Medley is a blood donor veteran. She'd been to her share of drives, given around 30 pints of blood through the years. But this morning, the last day of 2011, was special. It marked the first blood donation she'd given since she was cleared of breast cancer on Dec. 22.

And she was happy to do it with her daughter and friend, surrounded by some of their favorite characters.

Among them was Kim Kieser, a Portland resident who began preparing for the event the night before. A member of The 501st Legion, she covered her body with baby blue paint before slipping into bed, then rose early to finish the two-hour process of transforming into her Star Wars character, a Twi'lek Jedi.



Her ensemble, topped off with a head piece in the shape of two tentacles, stood out among the more common costumes of Jedis, Stormtroopers and Darth Vader.

"It's really cool when you have kids come up to you with a plastic light saber and say, 'I like your costume,'" Kieser said.



Red Cross spokesman Nate Warren said this year's event drew larger amounts of blood and platelet donors than normal for a New Year's Eve drive, exceeding last year's inaugural galaxy blood battle.

"Typically in the winter, it tends to be a more difficult time as people are traveling, and vacations and weather can all impact our donations," he said. The agency supplies more than 80 hospitals in the Northwest with blood to serve trauma and burn victims, surgical patients, patients with blood disorders and others.

"We had a full schedule for all our areas of donating (in the center) today, which, for a holiday such as New Year's, is a very exciting thing for us."

Warren added that the theme fit the spirit of the city. "Not only is it keeping Portland weird, but it's keeping the awareness that Portland is a generous city."

The ballots were tallied when the blood war ended. The warrior Klingons claimed victory.



— Rachel Stark



