Lifeserve photo of blood donation.
Blood donation centers across Iowa are taking part in an effort next weekend to set a world’s record for most blood donors in a single day.
Danielle West, spokeswoman for LifeServe Blood Center, says as part of the Global Blood Heroes Day campaign, they’re urging people to sign up to donate a pint on Saturday, August 27th. West says donations are typically slow during the summertime though the need for blood is usually higher.
“With the Iowa State Fair and things like that, people are not thinking about giving, so hopefully, they’ll come in after that and come in on this day,” West says. “We do have a lot of great incentives for our blood donors in our online store. We have a great summer promotion t-shirt that people can get. So I’m hoping that this will bring people in or bring awareness to someone who’s maybe never thought about donating before either.”
The current record is around 33,000 blood donors in a single day and the campaign is aiming to shatter that record with 50,000 donors globally. West says she’s hoping Iowans will join in. “There’s another community blood center in Iowa called ImpactLife and between ImpactLife and LifeServe, we cover about 99.9% of the state of Iowa as far as the hospitals we support,” West says. “So this is a real community blood center effort to hopefully get people into their community blood center which will support their community hospital.”
Donors in 20 countries across six continents are taking part in Global Blood Heroes Day on the 27th. All blood types are in short supply, West says, so they could use some help from all Iowa donors. “People assumed during the pandemic that we really felt the impact, which we did, but we are lower this year than we have been the last couple of years,” West says. “I think people are getting back to their normal lives and vacations and things that they’ve been holding off doing, and we’ve felt the impact with lower donor turnout.”
LifeServe has 11 Iowa offices in: Ames, Ankeny, Cedar Falls, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Marshalltown, Mason City, Pella, Sioux City, Urbandale and West Des Moines. To schedule an appointment, visit lifeservebloodcenter.org or call 800-287-4903. ImpactLife, formerly the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, has nine offices in seven Iowa cities: Burlington, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Dubuque, Iowa City, Muscatine and Ottumwa. Contact ImpactLife at bloodcenter.org or call 800-747-5401.