By Claire Williams
There are countless ways to give back to the community, but not all of them involve saving lives. Donating blood is a simple way to help do just that. The Blood Center-Brazos Valley is the place to go to donate blood to those in need.
The Blood Center is a branch of the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and provides blood to nine local hospitals in the area, says Steve Walker, regional operations manager at The Blood Center-Brazos Valley. “When you’re donating here, you’re giving back to the community,” he says.
In 2003 the nonprofit launched their Commit for Life program, which sprung out of the need for consistent blood donations. Walker says across the company they need 800 donations every day in order to fulfill the hospitals’ needs.
“You never know when [a family member] is going to need blood,” says Kyle Pearcy, neighborhood donation center operations manager. “We need to be prepared beforehand. When you donate, your blood isn’t automatically available; it has to go through testing and everything. We encourage people to continuously donate so that supply is there and so we never get into a situation where there is a shortage.”
People can donate as individuals or as groups through the Blood Center’s Commit for Life program. This program asks people to commit time to actively donate blood, spread awareness of its importance, and connect with The Blood Center via email, text, phone, or social media, says Walker.
The Blood Center offers a few different donation options. In addition to whole blood donations, individuals can also participate in platelet and plasma donations and double red cell donations. The platelet donations only last five days, explains Pearcy. Because cancer patients and burn victims tend to rely most heavily on platelet donations, some individuals come to The Blood Center once a week to make these specific kinds of donations. Platelets can be given every seven days up to 24 times a year.
Not only do donations take place at the Blood Center’s physical location, but the organization also sets up blood drives all across the Brazos Valley. Blood drives take place on more than 300 days out of the year, says Walker. These happen just about anywhere. The organization employs coaches that seek out any available spaces to set up mobile blood drives, usually parking in front of businesses or high schools. The drives at the high schools tend to receive the most donations.
The Blood Center sets three different levels that donors can achieve. A person achieves the bronze level after attempting to donate blood once, silver level after one successful donation, and gold level after three successful donations in a calendar year.
In addition to the levels, donors receive points. Recently, The Blood Center created a Commit for Life store. Donors’ points add up and can be redeemed for an electronic gift card from the Donor Rewards Store, Walker explains. These rewards are just a bonus to the process of giving back to the community in a way that saves lives.
“Blood has an expiration date,” says Walker. “We’re always needing to restock.”
To find out more about how to donate blood, visit www.giveblood.org.
