American Red Cross in serious need of blood donors

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – The American Red Cross has been without several blood donors and canceling blood drives due to wildfires and other weather conditions. 

The Red Cross continues to encourage anyone to donate. 

Those who do donate are entered into a drawing to win two tickets to Super Bowl 59.

“We are in the winter months, of course. And with that comes those winter storms, snow and ice, which is causing a lot of our drives to be canceled nationwide. And so just the month of January, so far, we’ve gone, about 15,000 blood and platelet counts have not been collected, due to those closures,” said Sullivan.

Micheal Sullivan is the Executive Director for the American Red Cross. He says January is one of the most important months to collect blood as they try to stock up going into the new year. 

Unfortunately, with the weather conditions and even wildfires happening in Southern California and beyond, a good amount of blood drives is having to be canceled. The cancellations are resulting in fewer amounts of available supplies of blood. 

“It’s unsafe, we want to keep our donors safe and our teams that go out and host these drives. And so we want to make sure that they’re safe. And so we do cancel drives whenever there are unsafe conditions,” said Sullivan.

Even with the conditions, Sullivan encourages anyone to donate if you are able to at a local blood drive location. 

You can find available locations on their website or there is a blood donor app for free to find the closest blood drives near you. 

Sullivan stresses the importance of giving blood, and why there is an entire month dedicated to it. 

“You know, the biggest thing we do is we try to make sure that people are aware of the need. You know, giving blood is such an easy thing to do to help somebody else. And so we just want to bring that awareness of why it’s important to give blood that does not last forever and has a life-expression date,” said Sullivan. 

When it comes to donating blood, it is important to keep in mind you can only give every 56 days.

The Red Cross and local hospitals are all working together to ask others to donate blood today. 

“So for Cape Girardeau, we actually do have an office there and we have a center. So if people want to give, they can give both whole blood and they can give platelets at that center in Cape Girardeau. And so we definitely encourage those who are,” said Sullivan.

To see closest drives near you and more information: Donate Blood, Platelets or Plasma. Give Life | Red Cross Blood