YOUR SPACE: Giving is in his blood

CAÑON CITY • People have all kinds of weird hobbies.

Art Hagerman might have one of the weirdest.

He donates blood.

He’d do it every day if he could, but the rule is that he must wait eight weeks between gigs.

He has been at for 58 years. His trail of blood spans eight states, from Florida to Idaho. He has donated more than 340 pints. That’s pushing 43 gallons. His picture is on the wall of the blood bank at St. Thomas More Hospital in Cañon City. “He’s the top donor ... with all of Centura (in Fremont County),” says medical technologist Karen Rodarmel.

What makes Hagerman even more special is that he is O-negative, the universal donor blood. It can be transfused to a person of any blood type, so it’s in big demand and in limited supply. 

Hagerman’s happy to share. In Rodarmel’s chair, he plops back and acts like he’s there for a massage, not a phlebotomatic encounter. When she comes at him with a needle and says, “All right, now you can scream,” he breaks into a chuckle that shakes his body.

It’s over in eight minutes, way too soon. In return, he gets juice, a cookie and a sticker that says, “Blood donors make better lovers.”

His wife, Martha, nods approvingly. The inseparable couple, known as “Art and Mart,” have been married 53 years. She was a blood donor until health problems interfered a few years ago.

Hagerman, a 77-year-old retired surveyor and grocery store manager, started donating blood in 1951 as a Navy serviceman in the Korean War.

He was an occasional donor until 1957, when Martha was pregnant with their first child. “They asked that we donate one pint of blood,” he says. “As insurance.” 

He has pretty much been on a nonstop roll since.

After retirement, when they roamed around in an RV, he was ever on the lookout for places to roll up his sleeve. “If I’d see a sign along the road in a small town, I’d stop and donate blood,” he says.

The couple settled in Fremont County after serving as campground hosts at Pueblo Reservoir.

Rodarmel can set her calendar on seeing Art and Mart every eight weeks. “I feel good about it. I feel better afterward than I do before,” he says. “It’s a psychological thing, because you’re doing something for somebody else. Only about 5 percent donate. Just like church or anything, 3 or 5 percent donate time and the rest benefit from it.”

Hagerman set an example for his kids. “They all donate,” he says.

He has never been on the receiving end with the 5 million people getting blood transfusions every year.

But, if he ever is, he’s paid his dues ­— in blood.

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