As the New Year approaches, it’s sobering to think that more than 4.5 million people will need blood transfusions in 2010. That averages out to about one person every seven seconds. These figures include trauma victims, patients with leukemia, cancer, sickle-cell anemia and people who need surgery to overcome a vast variety of injuries and diseases. In the face of such great need, what surprises Ira Riklis is how few of us ever take time to donate blood.

What about you? Do you make it a point to donate blood even once a year? If not, why not? To be sure, we’re all busy and it does take an effort to get out and do something beyond our normal routines. But it may be that the fear of pain keeps some people from donating.

If that’s the case for you, Ira Riklis wants to assure you that those fears are unfounded. He’s made some 40 blood donations over the years. He can testify that, other than a possible moment of discomfort when they prick your finger to take a blood test, the process is completely painless.

So why not make it a New Year’s resolution to donate blood at least once next year. (And there’s even time to donate in 2009!)

Now, as far as injuries go, scuffed elbows and knees and even a broken bone now and then are one thing. Traumatic head injuries are quite another—they account for more than 50% of all deaths from bicycle accidents.

Ira Riklis became aware of these statistics some years back when a child safety organization in Charlotte, North Carolina, approached him to ask if he’d be willing to provide helmets for local kids. Once he learned of the dangers of riding without helmets, he was more than happy help. He and the group did some planning, and on a fine spring day more than 5,000 kids were fitted for free helmets in the parking lot of a local YMCA.