A state record again for Kim: More than 600 donate in blood drive in memory of Naperville mom

An annual blood drive that started at the behest of a Naperville mother dying of cancer four years ago has set a state record again.

Organizers said more than 600 people donated blood Saturday at Naperville North High School for “A Pint For Kim” in Naperville.

The blood drive was created in 2020 when Naperville mom Kimberley Benedyk Sandford, who had terminal cancer, asked her family to hold a it in lieu of a wake.

Benedyk Sandford needed more than 40 blood transfusions during her final months of treatment. She sought to turn her suffering into positive change. She and her family learned the largest use of donated blood goes to cancer patients to help them remain strong enough to continue their battles.

“It is pretty amazing when you think about it,” husband Robert Sandford, the first to donate Saturday morning, told ABC 7 Chicago. “It's people helping people, and so it just struck a chord with us.

“Kim really felt like, ‘Wow, I really want to give this back.' And, she told her doctor one time, kind of joking, she said, ‘We'll give this back 10-fold.' But, she was wrong, because it's been more like 100-fold.”

More than 500 donors attended that first year of “A Pint For Kim” setting a state record for a single-day, single-location blood drive.

After Benedyk Sandford died in 2020 at age 49 from a rare form of cancer, her sisters, Kristyn Benedyk and Kathleen Fuglsang, continued the effort.

Now 100 more donors gave than that first year, setting a state record again, organizers said. The total of more than 600 came to more than 75 donating per hour.

While previously held at a private airport hangar at J.A. Air Center, this year' event was at Naperville North, where both of Benedyk Sandford's boys now attend school.

“We're raising awareness, and we're doing something good with what happened,” Sandford said.