To recruit donors at this critical time, BBD continues their “Blood for a Brew” campaign and offers donors coupons and/or gift cards from local breweries
DELAWARE – Blood Bank of Delmarva (BBD) announced a blood emergency today, as the region’s ongoing heatwave, summer travel, and a recent spike in COVID-19 cases have caused a significant decrease in donations over the past several weeks. Hospitals and patients rely upon a steady flow of donors to receive life-saving blood donations, but these factors have caused the blood supply to become unstable.
The red blood cell supply currently stands at just a 1.1-day level for O negative, 2.4 days for B negative and 4.4 days for O positive, which is below the ideal level of seven days. In addition, platelets are at just a 1.7-day level.
BBD continues to partner with local breweries for their “Blood for a Brew” campaign, which started on May 19th and continues until September 10th. Donors can give blood onsite at brewery blood drives or select the drop-down option when completing their health history at any donation location. As a part of this campaign, each presenting donor will receive a coupon and/or gift card dependent on the participating brewery. Since March 2020, the number of first-time donors has dropped dramatically and creative campaigns like “Blood for a Brew” aim to raise awareness as well as amplify the need for new blood donors.
Nine establishments are participating in this campaign, sponsored by TD Bank, across the region. A full list of participating breweries and restaurants can be found here.
“Summer has always been a challenging time for the blood supply, and we are grateful to all of our partner breweries for stepping up to help us during this critical time,” said Patricia Killeen, Senior Executive Director of Blood Bank of Delmarva. “All of our donor centers and blood drives are air-conditioned and donating blood could serve as a great break from record-breaking heat. Even better, we’ve partnered with breweries and restaurants all over the region for coupons and gift cards as a thank you for donating.”
BBD hosts blood drives every day in addition to their five area donor centers in order to reach donors and meet local hospital needs.
We are taking extra precautions to help prevent the person-to-person spread of COVID-19. As always, people are not eligible to donate if they’re experiencing a cold, sore throat, respiratory infection or flu-like symptoms. Additional information on donor eligibility and COVID-19 precautions is available here.
To make an appointment at a blood drive near you, donors can call 1-888-8-BLOOD-8 or visit delmarvablood.org/give-blood/blood-brew/. Can’t donate blood? You can still support BBD’s mission by texting the letters “BBD” to 20222 to donate $25.
