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The Community Blood Center of the Ozarks wants to make sure there will be enough blood over the 4th of July weekend for those that will need it. They're asking you to give blood between now and Friday. KSMU's Michele Skalicky has more.
As you prepare for your 4th of July festivities, consider adding one more thing to your to-do list: give blood. The CBCO says they need donations to be ready for the long holiday weekend...
"There's two things working against having enough blood on the shelves for area patients."
Chris Pilgrim is spokesman for the CBCO...
"Number one is just the season. You know, it's summertime. Blood donation isn't necessarily at the top of people's minds. They're instead thinking about things like vacations and what they're going to do with the kids and things like that. Schools aren't in session, too. We get a great deal of our blood from area high schools and colleges so that serves to knock against us as well. And then in the long holiday weekend--you know, some of our blood products only have a shelf life of five days, so when you get into a three or four day weekend when people are taking time off, lots of times we run short on those very products."
The CBCO is currently in a code yellow alert for all negative blood types...
"Which means that there's less than a two-day supply of all negative blood types--O negative, B negative, A negative and AB negative, so we need all blood types but those types in particular are what we're looking at warily as we enter the long holiday weekend."
Pilgrim says both the S. Glenstone and S. Campbell donor centers will be open Friday from 8 am to 3 pm. He hopes those who are off work for the 4th of July holiday will take time to give. Those who donate thru Friday will receive a free patriotic t-shirt and can give in honor of a veteran. For more information, call 227-5000 or visit www.cbco.org.
