Be a Hero, Save Lives, Give Blood

There are a lot of ways to give back to the community during the holidays. And giving blood is one that actually saves lives. 

"I do this because I can and I know they need blood during the holidays," said Lowell Hunt as he was giving blood at United Blood Services in Reno today. " id used to do this all the time and when my wife got cancer I had to slack off a bit because I was too busy. But I know they need it so I do what I can."

And he was just one of the people rotating in and out of United Blood Services today.

"Reno is a great community and it seems like when we call for donations, Reno-ites always step up to help," says Scott Edward who is the Regional Director for United Blood Services. He oversees the western district. 

"The need for blood has become so much more specific," Edward says. "It used to be we just needed blood and needed people to come in. Now we pay close attention to what we're short of, O-negative or O-positive and we ask people to give platelets when they can. That's a longer process it takes two hours but we know what we're short of and what we need and it seems Reno is always willing to help us out."

Northern Nevada needs about 35-hundred units during Christmas. It has to cover normally scheduled surgeries and accidents from the extra traffic and the storms we see. And  getting those donations oftentimes competes with all the other ways people can give back to the community here> Then in January they say we are backed up with needs for the cold and flu season that adds to the demand. 

But they have streamlined the process for giving blood with online registration and with allowing yo to fill out that extensive questionnaire on your history on line before you even get there. To make an appointment just go to www.unitedbloodservices.org/Reno

Written by Erin Breen