Red Cross announces local blood drives

American Red Cross information

The American Red Cross encourages the local community to end the year with real meaning by donating blood for hospital patients in need.

Holiday activities, severe weather and seasonal illnesses, like the flu, can pull people away from their regular blood donation schedules. This creates a greater need for blood donations this time of year, especially around the winter holidays. To encourage donations, all those who come to donate December 23 through January 3, 2016, will get a long-sleeve Red Cross T-shirt, while supplies last.

Jamie Czesak made her first blood donation on December 27, 2013. “As I spent Christmas with my family, I realized how lucky I was to have my health and how we never really know when our last Christmas will be. I decided that I would face my fears and do one of the few things I can do to help save someone’s life — donate blood.”

Healthy donors with all blood types are needed, especially those with types AB, O, B negative and A negative. To make an appointment to donate blood, download the free Red Cross Blood Donor App from app stores, visit redcrossblood.org or call 800.733.2767. Donors can now use the Blood Donor App to access their donor card and view vital signs from previous donations.

Local blood drives include the following:

• Thursday, December 17, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. – Trinity Friends Church, 605 N. Franklin St. in Van Wert.
• Friday, December 18, from 1-6 p.m. – Van Wert Health Center, 140 Fox Road in Van Wert.
• Wednesday, December 23, from noon-4 p.m. – Lee Kinstle GM Sales & Service, 650 W. Ervin Road in Van Wert.