Saving lives one drop of blood at a time

Each time you go to vote at the Wimberley Community Center, the friendly faces behind the table for signing in includes one individual who oversees the process. Any type of problem, ask Judy. She’ll get you the answer, even if she has to call San Marcos and bother them.

She’s Judy Dunn. When she’s not in charge of Wimberley elections, she usually traveling to some exotic country or visiting someplace new where she’s never been before.

But one feature that has been hidden from view is her life saving effort on those who need blood, due to an emergency or other necessary reason. She is a Universal Blood carrier of type O blood and has donated ten gallons of blood over the past years. Yes, youread that right, ten gallons. Can you imagine how many lives were saved?

“My mother went into give for someone she worked with. And that was my first experience with giving blood. We sat in the car. It was when the kids could sit in the car. So we sat in the car and waited.” Leaving an impression on Judy, when she got older, things progressed.

“I worked at the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation at 45th and Lamar. It was right across the street. I am a O positive blood donor. So they would call me and ask ‘Can you come over?’ So I just walked across the street at lunchtime to go give blood. I did that a lot… I’m going to say I started when I was about 18.”

Giving blood can be a routine after a while, but two incidences stick out.

“I come in to give blood. And all of a sudden she is putting these bright orange tags on all the paraphernalia that they use. And I asked her, “What are you doing?” She said, ‘well, this is going stat. And it’s going to a nine-month old baby.’ They didn’t have any other O positive. So it gives me goose bumps. And one other time they did that and it was a child. And I knew it was going directly to them. So that really brings it all home. I mean, it really does.”

Knowing that you are helping to save the life of anyone, let alone a child, can be an impetus to give more. The way the blood is examined now, and when you give, they break down the contents of your blood. You donate blood to the Central Texas Blood Center now called “We Are Blood.”

“It’s like a mini exam. Okay, you’ve got your temperature, you’ve got your blood pressure, you’ve got your cholesterol, all of that is there and I mean it’s like every six weeks or eight weeks you have a mini exam. And since COVID, each time you give, they break it down.” She continued.

“It’s on your account. You go on their web page, you register and all that. You need to go and read about it, because it is like a mini exam where it has all the (of your) history… And in October, they started testing for the antibodies, the COVID antibodies.”

Judy is an Austin girl. “Went to UT, didn’t graduate. Went to work right away. I married and moved to Dripping in 1974. I moved to Dripping Springs for 10 years, and then came over here in 1983.” She moved to Wimberley where she owned a bookshop. After a divorce, she “then met John, best thing, best guy in the whole world.”

The bookshop was to become the stepping-stone for a future Election Judge.

Her friend and her shop’- next door neighbor Joanne Miller got her started. “Joanne got me to start. We counted one time. She said ‘get Judy in here to count.’ So we counted. It was a horrible experience. But anyway, and then I got in with Joyce (Cowan, Election Administrator) and Joyce kept calling me. So I just, I believe in it. I don’t care how you vote. I don’t care what you vote for. But I want you to get out to vote. And I’ve been doing it now for 30 years, longer than anybody in that office.” She takes her job as an election judge seriously. But also takes the Wimberley community seriously.

“I am a true believer in volunteerism… And I remember I’ve done all kinds of volunteer work here. All kinds of stuff. “This includes the Crisis Bread Basket, the Wimberley Players and other organizations. Just being in Wimberley is the right place to be.

“Last year, I turned 70. So they got me this big plaque. The 70 things we love about you. My nephew described me as a conservative hippie. And that’s what he loves about me. But it’s just laid back here in Wimberley.”