Skeptical blood donor wins new SUV

  • Published
  • By Jeanne Grimes
  • 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFPN) --  Ron Bagby was a hard sell, even as the voice on the phone tried to convince him to come to an Oklahoma City car dealership and pick up the new vehicle he had won.

Mr. Bagby, a mechanic at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center here, laughs about it now. But he was so skeptical about what he was hearing that he almost did not follow through.

He won a 2005 Saturn Vue in a Oklahoma Blood Institute contest. A long-time blood donor, he regularly gives whole blood and blood products like plasma and platelets and has done so since he was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, with the Army in 1978.

“I wish everyone at Tinker would give blood to help out our (servicemembers) and our fellow Americans,” he said.

Since coming to work at Tinker in 1999, he has had an arrangement with the institute. They call when they want him to donate, and he obliges. They called in December, asked him to donate and mentioned that they were giving away a car.

When he went to give, a worker there asked if he was “going to sign up for the car?” Mr. Bagby said.

He said he filled out a card and dropped it into the hopper, putting the matter out of his mind -- until recently.

He was watching television at home when the telephone rang. His wife, Deitra, looked at the caller identification, and after not recognizing the name, let the phone ring.

“A few minutes later, my cell phone rang,” Mr. Bagby said. “The caller said, ‘Congratulations on winning a Saturn Vue!’ I said, ‘Yeah.’”

Undaunted, the caller made an educated guess.

“You’ve never won a car before, have you?” the caller asked.

They chatted a few minutes more before Mr. Bagby, still not believing a word he had heard, hung up. He said he told his wife about the conversation and went back to watching television.

The telephone rang again. It was another call about the car.

“He wanted to know what time Monday can I come to pick up my Saturn Vue,” Mr. Bagby said. “I thought, ‘I’ll play along with this one,’ so I told him 5 p.m.”

At the appointed hour, the Bagbys went to the dealership. A salesman walked up to them, and Mr. Bagby said he told him, “I’m here to pick up the Saturn,” even though he still did not believe it.

The salesman introduced him to the manager, who pointed out the chili pepper red vehicle, and soon, Mr. Bagby was surrounded by five or six blood institute representatives offering their congratulations.

The only snag has been the Saturn’s 5-speed manual transmission. Mrs. Bagby had never driven a standard. So Mr. Bagby takes her to a large vacant parking lot where she is mastering it. It is not that difficult, Mr. Bagby said. Not like when he learned to drive a standard.

“It’s got a light that comes on and lets you know when to shift,” he said.