Fisherville woman wins Kentucky Blood Center's Taylor Swift concert ticket giveaway drive

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Kentucky Blood Center has announced the winner of its Taylor Swift concert ticket giveaway drive.

From May 28 through June 29, KBC hosted the giveaway drive where donors could enter to win two tickets to Swift's Nov. 3 "Eras Tour" show in Indianapolis.

Tuesday, Cherri Owen, 76, was announced as the winner of the giveaway after a random drawing.

Owen will also receive a $500 gift card to assist with travel to Indianapolis.

KBC said Owen has been a regular donor, rolling up her sleeves for every Spencer Christian Church Blood Drive since 2019.

Officials said Owen's 16-year-old granddaughter Lilly, a "diehard Swiftie" who will use one of the two tickets, kept asking her if the tickets were fake.

"If you could have seen her face when I told her," Owen said in a news release. "She kept saying 'Gigi, is this fake? Are you sure it's not a hoax?' I said, I don't think it's fake. I think it's the real thing. 'Well, are you sure?' I said I'm not 100% sure, Lilly, but they're sending us some information so we should know pretty soon. So, she was very excited."

KBC said Owen's name was randomly chosen from a pool of 9,233 donors statewide during the four-week drive. All donors were given a Swift-themed t-shirt and had their name entered for the drawing.

Taylor Swift blood donation tshirt.png — Kentucky Blood Center will give donors a t-shirt when they give between May 28 to June 29.

Last month, officials said KBC had seen an uptick in blood donations since the drive began in May. In three weeks, more than 1,000 donors gave blood for the first time, the agency said.

Tuesday, KBC said Owen was inspired to begin donating blood because her father was a longtime donor. It also hit home for her when two of her daughters "recently battled health scares that could have required blood transfusions."

"If I'm able to do it, I don't see a reason not to," she said. "I just think it's a good thing if I can do it. The possibility of the unexpected, that your child or a friend of yours might need blood at any moment motivates me to give. It doesn't take but an hour, and you can help somebody live. If it's not available, it creates a major crisis."

KBC said the need for blood is constant. Blood collected by the center goes to more than 70 hospitals across Kentucky where it's used for surgeries, diseases like cancer, trauma, organ transplants, premature births and more.

KBC donor centers are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Donors must be at least 17 years old, or 16 with a parent's permission.

To schedule an appointment to give blood at a KBC location, click here. Donors can also call the KBC at 800-775-2522.

KBC Donor Centers in Louisville: