While Americans are spilling their blood in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American Red Cross is hoping local people are willing to give a little blood in their honor.

A special Shenango Valley Community Blood Drive entitled “Heroes Honoring Heroes” will be held Monday, July 21, from noon to 6 p.m. at the Shenango Valley VFW, East State Street, Sharon.

While we all would love to see all our troops home as soon as possible, it doesn’t look like that will happen. But this way of honoring our Armed Forces personnel is a great idea that hopefully will get support from our area.

“Those men and women overseas are true heroes,” said Pat Miller, senior field representative for the Red Cross Greater Alleghenies Region, which includes Mercer County. “But so are people who give blood. A lot of lives are saved by blood donors.”

While there are several giveaways for people who participate, perhaps the best part of the blood drive is that each donor is asked to sign a map of Mercer County. That map will be presented to the Hermitage National Guard Unit.

Heroes honoring heroes!

Donors will also be entered in a raffle for a one-year supply of gas, receive a tie-dyed T-shirt while supplies last, and get a coupon from Marchelloni’s Pizza for a free medium pizza.

There will also be free raffles throughout the day for free oil changes from Preston Ford and Shenango Nissan Honda; a gift certificate from Sharon Save-A-Lot; and gift certificates from Quaker Steak & Lube.

I have given blood many times over the years and would encourage everyone to participate if your health allows. It really doesn’t hurt much and this is a special blood drive to recognize our troops who fight for our country overseas.

Here’s a chance to be a hero and honor a hero July 21.

ä In the newspaper business, we deal with thousands of words everyday and no matter how hard you try, there will be mistakes from time to time. Some are embarrassing, but some are downright hilarious.

One of the funnier ones, you may not have noticed, occurred recently concerning the above-mentioned Quaker Steak & Lube.

In a paragraph regarding the “Pennsyltucky Olympics” held there, the location was listed as the Quaker Streak & Lube.

Maybe it’s just me, that struck me as funny. But I can remember when streaking (running nude) was a big event on college campuses and even sporting events, and I immediately thought of Ray Stevens’ song “The Streak” and the words “I said, ‘Don’t look Ethel. But it was too late. She’d already been mooned!’ ”