Red Cross Out for Blood for Mardi Gras

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By Chad Petri Reporter

M60o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Red Cross Out for Blood for Mardi Gras

Published: Fri, January 25, 2008 - 6:04 am
Last Updated: Tue, January 29, 2008 - 7:30 pm

Chad Petri

Around the American Red Cross donation center a few people are rolling up their sleeves. All it takes is a little time and the strength to endure a slight pinch.

“I do it because it's something can do for my fellow man,” says Ralph Lawrence. “Just takes a little bit of time and costs me nothing.” Lawrence says he's been donating on and off since 1965. The Red Cross needs a few dozen people like him this Saturday. Officials here say donations go down in January while the demand goes up.

“Because there are more surgeries done in January than any other month during the year,” says Red Cross Senior Communication Specialist Evan Duffy. “So there's a tremendous surge in demand at the very point when our blood supply is at the low point for the year.” No mystic secrets here, just a large need for blood of all types. O-negative and positive as well as A-negative and B-negative are in short supply. You may not immediately think of giving blood with Mardi Gras, but the Red Cross has some incentives to get you from the parade into the chair.

“We're also going to enter every donor at this drive and in the month of January into a drawing for two $500 gift cards,” says Duffy. The blood donations head to hospitals in the Gulf Coast region. Duffy says the little plastic sacks of life are en-route to medical facilities in Alabama, the Florida panhandle and the Mississippi coast.

“We hope to see about 50 or 60 people at this drive,” says Duffy. “[It’s] a smaller drive than we usually hold in the mall but one at this time of the year is definitely necessary, and every unit definitely counts.” The blood drive is Saturday afternoon from 12:30 to 6PM at the Bel Air Mall.

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