Beginning May 23, the public is encouraged to save lives through donating blood as part of the American Red Cross 100 Day Challenge.
Laurie Nehring is communications program director for the Greater Ozarks-Arkansas Blood Services Region. She explains that donations are needed consistently all year long.
“Summer is always a challenge for us because we collect twenty percent of our blood products from high schools and colleges and with those schools generally out of session during the summer that makes collecting blood a little challenging.”
The Red Cross works with community partners and donors everyday across the nation to bring in all the blood products needed to take care of patients. That requires 14,000 pints of blood daily.
Nehring adds that if someone is interested in donating there is a simple and popular process for doing so.
“They can call 1-800 Red Cross, go to redcrossblood.org, or they can even download the blood donator app and we are just hearing our donators love it.”
For information on downloading the app click here.