DAYTON—Soltiva honored Tipp City resident David Dexter with his milestone 400th-lifetime donation on Jan. 12 at the Solvita Dayton Center. It demonstrated his dedication to donating and his willingness to give whatever blood product is most needed.

“I do this because I can and it helps somebody,” Dexter said. “I don’t know when I hit 300 if I thought I would make it to 400.”

Dexter made his 300th-lifetime donation in 2019.

“I started donating in the ’70s, back when they had the steak dinners at the Masonic Lodge,” Dexter said.

Dexter often donated whole blood because, as a type O positive, CMV-negative, his blood is in constant demand for red cell transfusions and for pediatric patients. But giving platelets and plasma allowed him to make 25 donations in 2023.

“I got to where to where I was doing whole blood, then I waited eight weeks and then would do apheresis two or three in a row. The last couple years I’ve just been doing platelets, or plasma, whatever they need to take. As long as somebody can use them, it doesn’t matter,” Dexter said.

Dexter was just 21 when he lost his father to a heart attack and took over the family’s plumbing and heating business with his mother. He retired in 2017 after 30 years as a consulting engineer. Dexter and his wife, Connie, raised a son and a daughter and have nine grandchildren.

To Schedule an appointment to donate with Solvita (formerly Community Blood Center) go to the Donor Time app, call 937- 461-3220, or visit www.donortime.com.