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As many as 275 blood donations are needed every day to meet the needs of the 36 hospitals across the region. With the holidays just around the corner, the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks reminds us all there are many ways to give this season. KSMU’s Theresa Bettmann has more.
Since 1995, the CBCO has conducted its Miracle of Giving Blood Drive to encourage donations during the holidays. Chris Pilgrim is a spokesperson for the CBCO. He says with people so busy during the holidays, donations tend to taper off. Pilgrim says a three-day supply of blood is necessary to keep up with local needs, and that a color-coded system is in place to monitor the supply.
Green indicates that a three-day supply is available; yellow means a two-day supply is available, and red means there is less than a day’s supply. Pilgrim encourages those who have never given blood before to give it a try.
“I’ve got to tell you, it is so easy to save a life. It’s relatively painless, you know, lots of people are afraid it’s going to hurt but it really doesn’t. You have to be at least 16 years of age. Sixteen-year-olds now need to have a permission slip from their parent or guardian. You have to weigh at least 110 pounds, and you can not have given blood in the last 56 days,” Pilgrim said.
The blood drive lasts from now until January 2nd in 38 counties throughout the Ozarks. During this event, any donor will have the option to receive a T-shirt. In select areas participants have the choice of giving up the shirt to help another area program.
“If you come into our Springfield or our Joplin donor centers you’ll be given the option to either take the T-shirt, or if you want to make your donation go a little farther, you can give the tee-shirt up and we’ll make a cash donation to Ozarks Food Harvest. Now, we did this last year and we were able then to provide $5000 dollars to Ozarks Food Harvest, which they used to feed people all through the winter months,” said Pilgrim.
You can find a link to more information below. For KSMU News, I’m Theresa Bettmann.
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ANCHOR TAG: Meanwhile, the Missouri-Illinois region of the American Red Cross says its blood supply is low because of the weekend winter storm. Several blood drives were cancelled, so the Red Cross is also reminding donors they are needed there, too.
