Shreveport-Bossier Comes Together to Break Blood Drive Record
We keep hearing about how badly we need to step our game up when it comes to donating blood. We have been dealing with a blood shortage for several years now. Lifeshare is always coming up with unique ways to motivate us all to donate blood.
According to KTBS, Lifeshare and Waitr blew past last year's blood drive numbers. Last year the United We Give blood drive brought over 1,400 people to donate blood. Keep in mind this event is a three-day push to get as many people to donate as possible. This year we saw a huge jump in blood donations.
Lifeshare and Waitr shared with KTBS that they had over 1,867 people donate blood. The numbers for the Ark-La-Tex were encouraging too, we saw an increase of over 46% first-time blood donors. I would like to point out that Raising Cane's offering a free box combo for everyone who donated would be enough to motivate me to get out there and donate. Free chicken fingers? Count me in.
Why is this such a big deal? The pandemic drained LifeShare’s blood inventory. To top it off most people feel less inclined to donate blood during the summer. The jump in blood donations could not have come at a more critical time.
LifeShare Blood Center, calls Shreveport home. It was established in 1942 and since then they have been regularly supplying blood to more than 100 medical facilities and hospitals throughout Louisiana, East Texas, and South Arkansas. To say we rely on blood donations is an understatement.