Blood Banks Make their Seasonal Calls for More Donations

Some regular activities sometimes get short-shrift over the busy holiday season - donating blood is one of them.

Community Blood Services of Illinois is holding two blood drives Tuesday, hoping to get people into the bloodmobile at a time when donations often trail off. Spokeswoman Ashley Davidson says her agency has tried to plan in advance, knowing that fewer donors and continued high demand combine for a seasonal problem.

"We try to schedule as many drives as possible and we do a lot of in-center calling as well," Davidson said. "We really try to increase our total recruitment around this time, especially if we need certain blood types. We do try to cushion for it because we know at this time of year, our donations do go down."

Davidson says it takes about 500 donors every day in the region to keep the supply of blood at its member hospitals in east-central Illinois adequate. Right now she says there's a fairly serious shortage of type-O blood as well as A-negative and B-positive.

Tuesday's blood drives take place at Urbana's Provena Covenant Medical Center and at the U of I Employees Credit union main office in Champaign.