A quote on the wall of the Red Cross blood bank in Richland reads, "Every drop counts, every person matters."

Judy Kees has given a lot more than a drop since she started donating in the Tri-Cities in 1994. In fact, the Pasco woman has given more than 12.5 gallons of platelets, Red Cross staff estimated.

That's about one pint each multiplied by 97 visits. Because Kees gives from both arms, that estimate probably is low, said Beckie Patrick, donor recruiter.

Kees was inducted into Baxter Healthcare Corp.'s Donation Hall of Fame on Tuesday for her dedication to helping others. She was one of 13 blood donors chosen nationwide out of a pool of more than 400 nominees, said Cyndi Mitchell, a Baxter spokeswoman.

Mitchell handed Kees a crystal plaque shaped like a blood drop, and a framed photo to hang on the blood bank wall.

But awards aren't Kees' motivation to spend 90 minutes every two weeks donating.

Every time Kees walks through the blood bank doors, she thinks of her two sons, Michael and Patrick, who both died from hemophilia.

Hemophilia is a hereditary blood disease in which the blood lacks the substance it needs to clot, Kees said. Clotting is the process that controls bleeding by turning blood from a liquid to a solid.

Both of her sons bled into their joints, which destroyed surrounding tissue. Michael Kees died in 1986 at the age of 27. Patrick Kees was 36 when he died in 1998.

"My youngest son was so ill when he passed away," Kees said. "He used a lot of single-donor platelets. I think about him -- about both of them -- when I come in. And I do it because it's for the good of people."

Platelets help the blood clot, and most often are used in leukemia patients undergoing chemotherapy, Patrick said.

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow that leaves patients unable to produce red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets as normal. Chemotherapy further reduces the number of platelets, putting patients at risk for internal bleeding, Patrick said.

Donors can give either whole blood, or platelets contained in just enough plasma to keep them from clotting, Patrick said. The benefit of taking just the platelets is that higher concentrations can be taken in a single sitting using a machine that separates them from the blood.

There is about a teaspoonful of platelets in one unit of whole blood, Patrick said. One unit is just less than a pint. It would take platelets from six to eight separate units of whole blood to make one unit of platelets taken by the machines.

That's what makes people like Kees so important, Patrick said. Kees gives about two units of platelets every time she visits the blood bank.

"I wish there were more (people donating)," Kees said. "I wish they were so busy they had to turn people away. ... It takes so little time and helps so many people."