Quincy Community Blood Drive March 29-30
The March Quincy Community Blood Drive is back on! The drive originally scheduled for March 7-8 had to be canceled due to snow, but Vitalant has rescheduled it for March 29-30.
We urge every eligible donor to make an appointment for the upcoming drive, as the need for blood is beyond critical at this time. (See accompanying press release from Vitalant below.)
To schedule an appointment for Wednesday, March 29, or Thursday, March 30, call local drive coordinator Elizabeth Smailes at 435-590-1531 or go online to donors.vitalant.org and search for Blood Drive Code QUINCY.
As always, the drive will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, corner of Bucks Lake Road and Bellamy Road just west of the hospital.
Severe Weather Impacts Prolonged Blood Shortage
Vitalant reports record blood collection losses in Northern Nevada
RENO, Nev. (March 3, 2023) — Nonprofit Vitalant is urging all eligible blood donors to give in March to help patients amid a prolonged blood shortage, compounded by inclement weather. In the Northern Nevada region alone, cold, snow and other adverse weather conditions across the country have resulted in nearly 600 lost collections due to canceled blood drives. While blood drives impacting ~130 of those lost collections have been rescheduled for late March and April, it is the day-to-day availability of perishable blood on hospital shelves that is a major concern. Weather concerns are not isolated incidents as across the Vitalant enterprise, over 1,300 blood collections have been lost during February’s severe weather.
Mitzy Edgecomb, Vitalant Vice President, reports, “This year has already presented with difficult weather-related obstacles to our mobile blood drive collections compounding the return from pandemic-related issues. These include a decreasing donor base and slow return of mobile blood drives due to hybrid schedules at work and school. We need more people to donate and to donate regularly.”
With increased traumatic injuries and surgeries requiring blood, falling blood inventories, already low, must be ramped up to provide for patients with both acute and chronic need for blood. Type O donors are especially needed since O-positive is the most common blood type and O-negative can help patients of all blood types.
Learn more and make an appointment to give at vitalant.org download and use the Vitalant app or call Elizabeth Smailes at 435-390-1531. Blood donors who donate with Vitalant in March will automatically be entered to win one of 2, $10,000 prepaid gift cards, to be used wherever accepted, enough to buy groceries for a year. In addition, all donors are invited to join Vitalant’s donor recognition program. With each donation, donors can receive points toward thank-you gifts redeemable online. Visitvitalant.org/marchgift for details on the prepaid gift card giveaway.
