The panels are over, the photo ops are done, the vendors are all gone, and the fans are drifting back to real life. Dragon Con 2017 is a wrap, and it was one for the record books!
Dragon Con, Atlanta’s internationally known convention for pop culture, science fiction, and fantasy, takes place over four days each Labor Day weekend. This year, over 80,000 fans attended the con, a jump of about 3,000 from 2016’s attendance for the con’s 30th anniversary.
Dragon Con has a highly visible charitable side. The convention hosts the Robert A. Heinlein “Pay It Forward” blood drive, consistently ranked as the largest blood drive based at a convention. 2017 marked a big landmark for the annual drive. LifeSouth, which has organized the drive since 2002, recognized Dragon Con for its 25,000th donor. This year’s drive attracted around 3,000 donors. LifeSouth will oversee distribution of the donated blood to over 40 hospitals in the Atlanta area and 110 hospitals in the Southeast. A portion of the donations this year will go to Texas to support the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Each year, the con collects donations for a selected charity. This year, the chosen charity is Special Olympics Georgia. Some of the donated funds will also be given for Hurricane Harvey relief. The total amount of the donations has not yet been reported, since the con ended only a few hours ago.
Image credit: Valdis Longbeard.
