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Thank you to our
generous sponsors
of WonderCon 2008
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Blood Drive Details
Friday, Feb 22
1:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Saturday, Feb 23
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Room 274-276
(West Mezzanine)
For more information, please visit the Blood Drive desk in the main lobby of Moscone South.
» About Robert A. Heinlein
» The Heinlein Society
WonderCon hosts the
Robert A. Heinlein
Memorial Blood Drive
On Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22 and 23, WonderCon will once again host the
Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Blood Drive, sponsored by the Heinlein Society.
Blood Centers of the Pacific will be at Moscone South to collect blood donations
from 1:00-6:00 PM on Friday, and 10:00 AM-4:00 PM on Saturday, in Room 274/276
on the West Mezzanine We hope you will take a brief break from your other
convention activities and come join us in saving lives, and have some cookies
and juice while you're at it.
Each donor will receive a cloisonné pin that was designed by Mr. Heinlein for
the first World Con blood drive in Kansas City as our way of saying, "Thank you
for helping." In addition, WonderCon will provide a "goodie bag" to each person
who donates blood as an additional thank you for supporting this most worthy
cause.
About
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 - May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular
and respected science fiction authors of the 20th Century. By setting a high
standard for science and engineering plausibility, he helped to raise the
genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first writer to break into
mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s with
unvarnished science fiction. He was also among the first authors of bestselling
novel-length science fiction in the modern mass-market era.
Four of Heinlein's novels (Double Star, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange
Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress) won Hugo Awards in the years they were
published. In 2001, another novel (Farmer in the Sky) and a novella (The Man Who
Sold the Moon) received "Retro Hugos" for the year 1951, and the movie
Destination Moon, which was based on a Heinlein story, received the "Retro Hugo"
for best dramatic presentation. He was the first writer to be named a Grand
Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America for lifetime achievement.
Heinlein was known as the "Dean of Science Fiction Writers", but he was much
more. He was a philanthropist who helped many charitable causes and individuals.
When asked how he could be repaid for his help, he would reply, "You can't pay
me back, you have to pay it forward."
One cause that was of great importance to him was blood donation. Having a rare
blood type himself (AB+), he was a frequent donor and a supporter of the
National Rare Blood Club, which was an integral part of his novel I Will Fear No
Evil. In 1976, at the 34th World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City, he
helped to organize the first of many science fiction convention blood drives. In
1977, he did the same at the San Diego Comic-Con,
and 2007 marked the 30th anniversary of the Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Blood Drive
as an integral part of that event.
The Heinlein Society was formed in 2000 to preserve the legacy of Robert
Heinlein by "paying it forward." One of the ways we are doing this is by
promoting blood donation around the world. We began by the efforts with an
Internet blood drive, encouraging fans to donate at their local blood banks and
send their names to us to be entered into our honor roll and presented to the
late Mrs. Virginia Heinlein. That drive continues annually in her absence.
In 2001, at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia, the
Society sponsored its first onsite blood drive, with the Red Cross collecting 60
units of blood. In the 6 1/2 years since then we have sponsored more than 50
drives, generating more than 1,900 units of blood and saving potentially
thousands of lives.
You can learn more about Robert Heinlein, the Heinlein Society and the Blood
Centers of the Pacific at
www.heinleinsociety.org and
www.bloodcenters.org.
We hope you will join us in "paying it forward" by donating blood at WonderCon
this weekend.
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