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  Scores of Friends Donate 200 Pints for Priest

Associated Press
March 19, 1985

So many parishioners and friends have contributed blood for an injured Roman Catholic priest that they may help replenish the community supply, a Red Cross worker says.

Some waited for nearly two hours Monday to donate blood at the parish hall for Rev. Thomas F. Motherway, the 42-year-old associate pastor of St. Margaret's Church in the city's Dorchester section.

Motherway is in serious condition at Massachusetts General Hospital with head and abdominal injuries and broken bones suffered early Feb. 17. He was returning to the parish when a truck going the wrong way collided head-on with his car in Revere.

The Red Cross estimated that it would collect 200 pints of blood from the special neighborhood drive.

That will be far more than the priest can use, but "people understand that it will replenish the community blood supply," said Blanche Lansky, a Red Cross official.

"I couldn't believe this many people would come," said Patricia Capen, 33, of Medford, a second cousin of the priest.

She said that more than 100 people came through the registration desk, where she volunteered, during the first two hours of the six-hour drive. The donors came from as far away as Burlington and Randolph, 15 miles north and south of Boston respectively.

Motherway has been at St. Margaret's for 1 1/2 years and before that had served for one year in Randolph.

"We thought we would come," began Arnold Chinetti in a sentence his wife, Jane, finished with, "And help out in any way we can." They have been in St. Margaret's parish for 22 years.

The blood drive was the idea of parishioners Coleen O'Donnell and James Trayers.

"The Red Cross said they couldn't do it at first because they were booked solid," Ms. O'Donnell said. "But then when we told them about the situation, they said they could do it right away."

 
 

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