Over the past few weeks, there have been many school cancellations, due to poor weather, which had many students celebrating. But, for the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, all of the awful weather has resulted in multiple canceled blood drives in the area.
With all the awful weather recently, the blood center has had to cancel multiple blood drives to keep people safe. After talking to Angela Reese who organizes the drives for the blood center, she said;
“Locally we have had five high schools cancel drives due to weather. This has caused a loss of 297 units. If we move further out to include all of our schools that have cancelled in our Northern division (Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Burlington, and Ottumwa) in the last three weeks, that takes the total to 12 school drives and 552 units. This equates to over 1600 blood products lost. This along with another 600 units lost from non-schools put the total lost units over 2200.”
Fortunately, due to the good weather last week, PV’s blood drive was a success last Wednesday. If you want to find out more on how to donate, click to find out more specifics on the PVs blood drives.
“We collected 39 units at the PV blood drive last week. Our goal was 41, so it was terrific to be that close to our goal despite so many missed school days. This included 14 first time blood donors!” said Reese. When just one person donates a pint of blood, it can help save as many as three people’s lives.
Some people may think that donating blood will not matter, but when looking at the bigger picture, one person can make a difference. “Our high school blood drives provide a pretty large portion of our annual blood supply. Most years it’s around 12-14% of the total annual supply, so our young donors play a huge role in our ability to serve patients in our service region,” said Reese.
When Kayla Nutt, PV junior, was asked about her participation in the blood drive, she said, “I gave blood because I believe that if you are given the opportunity to help those in need you should. I am fortunate to be healthy enough to donate, so it feels good that I will be giving people a chance at a healthier life.”
Though there was success in PV’s drive, the blood center is still in need of donations. If you are interested in donating blood you can go to the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center webpage to find out more information on how you can help.
