Kansas City, Kan. — Community Blood Center (CBC) announced a blood emergency today, as the region’s ongoing heatwave, summer travel and a recent spike in COVID-19 cases have caused a significant decrease in donations over the past several weeks. Hospitals and patients rely upon a steady flow of donors to receive life-saving blood donations, but these factors have caused the blood supply to become unstable. The blood supply currently stands at a 2-3-day level, which is well below the ideal level of 5-7-days.
To recruit donors, CBC is partnering with local breweries for their “Pint for a Pint” campaign, which runs from August 1st – September 10th at all donor centers and community blood drives. As a part of this campaign, all presenting blood donors will receive a voucher to redeem a free or discounted pint of beer, cider, wine, or soft drink at their local participating brewery or restaurant. Since March 2020, the number of first-time donors has dropped dramatically and campaigns like “Pint for Pint” aim to raise awareness as well as amplify the need for new blood donors.
Twenty-four establishments are participating in this campaign across the region. A full list of participating breweries and restaurants can be found here. Blood donors cannot redeem their voucher for alcohol on the day of their blood donation.
“Summer has always been a challenging time for the blood supply, and we are grateful to all of our partner breweries and restaurants for stepping up to help us during this critical time,” said Patsy Shipley, Vice President of Operations at Community Blood Center. “All of our donor centers and blood drives are air-conditioned and donating blood could serve as a great break from record-breaking heat. Even better, we’ve partnered with breweries and restaurants all over the region for free or discounted beverages as a thank you for donating.”
CBC hosts blood drives every day in addition to their 7 area donor centers in order to reach donors and meet local hospital needs.
It only takes one hour to donate, and a single donation can save multiple lives. Roughly one in seven hospital admissions require a blood transfusion. Those in need include: cancer patients, accident, burn, or trauma victims, transplant recipients, surgery patients, chronically transfused patients suffering from sickle cell disease or thalassemia, and many more.
To make an appointment, donors can call 1-877-468-6844 or visit www.savealifenow.org/donate-blood/pint-pint/. Can’t donate blood? You can still support CBC’s mission by texting ‘CBCKC to ‘20222’ to give $20.
