100+ blood drives honor victims and first responders who lost their lives in tragic attacks
In the event of emergencies, it is the blood already donated that saves lives
NEW YORK—New York Blood Center (NYBC) is hosting more than 100 blood drives across the greater New York area during the week of September 11th to honor the victims of the tragic attacks. The blood collected from the drives will help NYBC prepare for potential emergencies and ensure hospitals and patients have access to the blood they need.
“When tragedy struck our city eighteen years ago, New Yorkers rallied around each other and stepped up to help those in need. This September, we are calling on New Yorkers to continue giving back by helping to shore up the region’s blood supply,” said Andrea Cefarelli, Senior Executive Director of Donor Recruitment for New York Blood Center. “It is the blood that is already on the shelves that saves lives, so we are urging everyone who can to donate blood to ensure that every patient and hospital has access to the life-saving blood they need.”
Many drives are being co-hosted by first responders looking to give back to the community, including the New York Police Department, which is NYBC’s single largest donor group. In fact, 30 officers are expected to donate on September 11th at the 78th Precinct in Brooklyn.
View a full list of all 104 blood drives being hosted by the New York Blood Center next week.
It only takes one hour to donate, and a single donation can save multiple lives. Nearly 2,000 donations are needed each day in New York and New Jersey alone. Roughly one in seven hospital admissions require a blood transfusion, and supplies must be continually replenished.
Those in need include: cancer patients, accident, burn, or trauma victims, newborn babies and their mothers, transplant recipients, surgery patients, chronically transfused patients suffering from sickle cell disease or thalassemia, and many more.
Community members are encouraged to find time to donate blood at a NYBC donor center or convenient mobile blood drive, especially donors with O negative and B negative blood types. O negative blood donors are considered “universal,” and their blood type is needed most readily in trauma situations and emergency rooms across the country. B negative is a particularly rare blood type.
For more information on where to donate or how to set up your own drive, visit www.nybloodcenter.org/blood or call 1-800-933-2566.
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About New York Blood Center: Founded in 1964, New York Blood Center (NYBC) is a nonprofit organization that is one of the largest independent, community-based blood centers in the world. NYBC, along with its partner organizations Community Blood Center of Kansas City, Missouri (CBC), Innovative Blood Resources (IBR), Blood Bank of Delmarva (BBD), and Rhode Island Blood Center (RIBC), collect approximately 4,000 units of blood products each day and serve local communities of more than 45 million people in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT), Mid Atlantic area (PA, DE, MD), the Kansas City metropolitan area, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Southern New England. NYBC and its partners also provide a wide array of transfusion-related medical services, including Comprehensive Cell Solutions, the National Center for Blood Group Genomics, the National Cord Blood Program, and the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, which — among other milestones — developed the Hepatitis B vaccine and a patented solvent detergent plasma process innovating blood-purification technology worldwide.