The marvelous mathematics of the now-famed Lycoming-Spencer promotion of the Red Cross Bloodmobile Program, the catch phrase “299 plus 1” now totals 1,612 volunteers to give blood.

Recognition has come to Williamsport, the Lycoming Red Cross leaders and the Lycoming-Spencer Division of the Avco Corporation for the outstanding achievement of breaking all records in the Wilkes-Barre region of the Bloodmobile program. New records will fall Monday and Tuesday, August 11 and 12, when 12-nurses—the entire staff from Wilkes-Barre will serve a two-day, 24-bed operation at the local industrial plant.

The two-day project has been managed through Floyd J. Bird, the division’s manager, in order to proceed the 975 volunteers remaining after two earlier Bloodmobile visits.

How it all started several months ago, is told in an illustrated folio program prepared by Leo C. Williamson, Lycoming-Spencer’s public relations manager, who promoted the in-plant program. This folio has gained considerable fame on its own, having now been circulated throughout the Wilkes-Barre office to points as distant as New York. When last heard of, it was in Virginia.

The folio was described today by E.J. Durrwachter, chairman of the Bloodmobile program in Lycoming County.

In photos and text, the Williamson opus tells how Lycoming-Spencer first aimed at a new record of 300 donors for the area’s first in-plant visit of the Bloodmobile. Plant officials and union leaders conferred and a teaser publicity idea was launched on the plant’s bulletin board, displaying cards with simple but cryptic message, “299 plus 1.”

In proper time, office and union recruiters began their work among the employees and the first response proved overwhelming. The number of volunteers soared rapidly past the 1,000 mark. Finally, a few days before the scheduled visit of the Bloodmobile, the total was 1,536. It was evident that more than one visit of the Bloodmobile staff would be required.

In the first day, June 30, at Lycoming-Spencer’s Oliver Street headquarters, 301 pints of blood were collected from 350 donors. Then in July a special visit to the Park Street plant yielded 206 pints from 260 volunteers.

Since that time, still other employees at the large Lycoming-Spencer division have caught the spirit, and this accounts for the increase in the overall total of volunteers from 1,526 to 1,612, Mr. Durrwachter said.