Donating Blood Saves Lives
The Alpena Moose Lodge 571 hosted their yearly blood drive today from 12 to 4 p.m. Currently in the United States the National Blood Supply sits at critical levels. With some blood centers only having enough blood to last them about 1 to 2 days max. This is due to the recent back–to–back climate–based natural disasters the U.S. has been facing over the past few months. However, the summertime has historically seen fewer incoming donations than the winter time.
Justine Titus a Team Lead with Donor Service for Versiti Blood Center for Michigan said, “With summertime our donations have fallen and the blood supply does not take a vacation like everyone else. We need to see at least 3,600 hundred or 36,000 per week to keep up that blood supply.” Organizations like the American Red Cross are starting to sound the alarm as the blood supply for the Unites States has gone down nearly 25% since early August of this year, to what they describe as “critically low levels”.
However, what is really needed the most is donations of platelet donors or type O blood donors as these two areas are what is at the most critical level. Versiti isn’t just here in Alpena for one day, in fact they have more blood drives scheduled in the very near future in Alpena. Justine said, “We are in Alpena quite often, we have multiple drives monthly that we are here in Alpena.” She continues “In fact, we have one tomorrow at the All Saints Parish.”
Justine and the Versiti Blood Center of Michigan constantly have new goals that they’re trying to achieve. Justine gave a little insight as to what the current goal in for the All Saints Parish is for tomorrow. Justine said, “I believe this is a new drive for us so were hoping to bring in new donors to have them come back.” She adds, “Alpena is a great place because we are at multiple areas and we cover all around Alpena, to have them come back will be more convenient for them. I believe we have plenty of appointments open that day.”
If you would like to make an appointment to help donate blood and save up to three lives then you can visit Versiti’s webpage at Versiti.org or call them at 1–866–642–5663.
