Red Cross Offering Incentives for National Blood Donor Month
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As National Blood Donor Month is recognized in January, the American Red Cross is offering incentives for donors to keep blood supplies filled through inclement weather and flu season.
Sharon Kesselring, executive director of the American Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley, said blood donations can often be neglected during the busy holiday season, making the winter season the most challenging time to collect blood products.
"People are starting to focus on going back to school and work and catching up on what they didn't take care of during the holiday season, which distracts their attention from the fact that we still need to collect blood," Kesselring said.
Kesselring noted that the combination of inclement weather and cold and flu season could further limit the donor pool during the winter. She said cold weather events can cancel blood drives and that cold and flu season can "devastate" the donor pool.
Kesselring said the Red Cross wants to keep its fragile inventory as "stable as possible" through the winter season and avoid the national blood supply shortage that occurred last January. Blood products have a certain shelf life, including platelets needed for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. She noted that a stable blood supply is vital in ensuring that hospital orders can be filled.
"We're hoping that people will take the time and look for a blood drive elsewhere or on a different day if the drive they're signed up for is canceled due to bad weather," Kesselring said. "Storms could impact many areas where blood drives are scheduled this winter, so we need to keep our inventory from dipping into precarious levels."
The Red Cross currently needs donors for all blood types, especially O-negative blood, the universal donor.
To attract more donors to drives, the Red Cross is offering incentives during January and February for anyone who gives blood at an appointment or drive.
Anyone who donates with the Red Cross through Jan. 26 will be entered to win a trip for two to Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans. This trip includes three nights of hotel accommodations, access to pregame activities at the NFL's Super Bowl Experience and a $1,000 gift card for trip expenses.
The Red Cross will also enter those who donate between Jan. 27 to Feb. 28 to win a $15 e-gift card to a merchant of their choice.
Kesselring recommends that anyone interested in donating make an appointment on the Red Cross Blood Donor App. She noted that blood drives may be canceled due to inclement weather, so scheduling an appointment allows one to avoid any possible cancellations.
In addition to the app, appointments can be made online at redcrossblood.org or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS.
Kesselring noted that there will be many opportunities to donate blood in January at blood drives held throughout the month in Ohio and Belmont counties, including the Ohio Valley Media Day Drives held on Jan. 20-21 at the Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack.
"We're looking for some pretty large donation numbers those two days, but we still need blood donors before and after that, so we have other options available," Kesselring said.