Canfield blood donors can help combat an unprecedented blood shortage and receive a pair of free admission tickets to the Canfield Fair in return. A Community Blood Drive is scheduled Thursday, August 1, from 1pm to 6pm., in the Hampton Inn & Suites, Ironwood Community Room, 6690 Ironwood Blvd. Canfield, OH 44406. The drive is conducted by Vitalant (formerly Central Blood Bank).
Vitalant, one of the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit community blood service providers, supplies blood and blood products to nearly 1,000 hospitals and health care partners for patients in need across 40 states. That includes 50 health care facilities in western Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia and Ohio, where an average of 600 donors per day are required to meet patient needs.
But, that hasn’t been happening. The lack of blood donations is becoming a health-care crisis, forcing elective surgeries to be postponed and cancelled, and could become worse if more donors don’t step up. Supplies of Type O blood have been especially low this summer. Blood donations have decreased by 50% in the past 10 years. In 2017, donors gave only 47% of the blood needed by area hospitals, forcing Vitalant to import the other 53% from blood centers outside of our community.
Please help your community with a donation! To schedule an appointment, visit the website vitalant.org and click on the donate button, call 412-209-7000 or 412-589-4570, download the Vitalant-Pittsburgh smartphone mobile app. Use group code Q067 to register for this drive. Walk-ins also welcome.
For information on blood donation and donor eligibility, please visit the vitalant.org website.
Music in the Park – The BHS Jazz Band