Finance

When You Donate Blood, You Save Lives and Earn Gift Cards

Above Article Content Ad

The pandemic and extreme winter climate, mixed with workers working remotely and not lining up for blood drives on the job, are impacting the nation’s blood provide. Provides are at historic lows throughout the nation and there’s a determined want for folk to roll up their sleeves and donate blood.

To draw donors, blood banks provide present playing cards, probabilities to win cash and even tickets to main sporting occasions.

The Purple Cross just lately teamed up with the NFL to present some fortunate donors tickets to Tremendous Bowl LVI in Los Angeles. Blood financial institution Vitalant, which operates in 28 states, simply gave away 4 $5,000 present playing cards in January. Many blood drives frequently provide ALL donors $20 and $40 present playing cards to eating places and retailers.

Perks for Pints

Today you get much more than a T-shirt and a few peanut butter crackers while you donate. In fact, for a lot of donors, realizing that one pint of blood can save three lives is sufficient. And it solely takes 45 minutes to donate.

With blood assortment organizations routinely giving out $20 price of present playing cards to Amazon, eating places and main retailers at blood drives, a pair who offers six instances a yr can common $240 price of free stuff and save 36 lives.

For a household of 4 with youngsters above 16 and sufficiently old to donate, that’s about $500 in present playing cards per yr and 72 lives saved.

“One time we went to Kohl’s and there was a blood drive within the parking zone,” stated Beverly Mattis of Wake Forest, N.C. “They gave us every a $20 Kohl’s present card so my daughter and I went in and did some procuring afterward.”

A man wearing a face mask shows off his gift certificates after donating blood.
Restaurant certificates, retailer present playing cards and different rewards, generally even money, are sometimes provided to individuals who give blood.  Chris Zuppa/The BaghdadTime

The way to Get the Perks of Being a Common Blood Donor

If you happen to register to be a blood donor with the blood assortment group in your space, you’ll obtain texts or emails with dates of upcoming blood drives and the perks. There are a lot of blood assortment organizations across the nation. Listed here are three of the largest, and methods to register:

Most individuals can donate each two months. There’s no requirement that you simply give a sure variety of instances a yr, however there may be encouragement.

“I might say more often than not at virtually all of our drives our intention is to have a donor present,” stated Pat Michaels, OneBlood director of media relations. “It may very well be Carrabba’s, Publix, Purple Lobster. We now have constructed up some great companions,” he stated.

OneBlood additionally offers out tickets donated by the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, the Daytona 500 and Carowinds amusement park close to Charlotte, N.C.

Together with present playing cards and tickets, many blood assortment teams additionally give out swag similar to seaside towels, fleece blankets, automotive shades and insulated water bottles.

Extra Perks for Donating Platelets

Platelets are small cells that cease bleeding by forming clots. Donated platelets are used for most cancers sufferers, transplants, burn sufferers and traumatic accidents.

When somebody donates platelets, a machine extracts them from complete blood then returns the remainder of the blood again to the donor. The method takes about three hours.

As a result of it takes longer than donating complete blood, extra perks are provided for individuals who give platelets, which might be donated each seven days. OneBlood just lately challenged platelet donors to a two-month program providing present playing cards valued at $25 for his or her second donation, $50 for his or her third and $75 for his or her fourth.

Vitalant can also be encouraging folks to arrange a “platelet get together” with pals the identical as they may host a celebration at their properties promoting Tupperware, magnificence provides, jewellery or garments. An organizer can invite eight pals to a non-public catered get together at a set heart the place donors obtain present playing cards and different swag.

People line up at a blood donation bus to donate blood.
With many individuals working from residence due to the pandemic, donations at cell amenities throughout conventional work hours has fallen. Chris Zuppa/The BaghdadTime

Skip Class and Win a Scholarship

Highschool blood drives are essential to supplying the nation’s hospitals with much-needed blood. About one-third of the blood collected nationwide comes from highschool college students.

Many grownup donors began as highschool youngsters lining up within the health club to do deed and get out of Algebra class. In most states, 17-year-olds can donate blood and 16-year-olds may give with a dad or mum’s consent. They need to weigh no less than 110 kilos and be in typically good well being.

Blood assortment companies throughout the nation provide competitions for native excessive faculties.

Organizers and/or individuals might win a set at a sports activities occasion or a school scholarship. Blood Facilities of the Ozarks, for instance, is providing a $1,000 grant to the college that will get essentially the most blood donations by Could 31, 2022. And to be truthful, there are three classes of small, medium and enormous faculties.

The way to Make Donating Blood, Scoring Reward Playing cards or Recreation Tickets Simpler

Right here’s some data from the American Purple Cross to make your donation go smoother earlier than you even get to a donation website. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two different types of identification are required at check-in.

Blood and platelet donors can save time at their subsequent donation through the use of RapidPass to finish their pre-donation studying and well being historical past questionnaire on-line, on the day of their donation, earlier than arriving on the blood drive. To get began, comply with the directions on the positioning or obtain the Blood Donor App from the Apple Retailer or Google Play.

COVID-19 doesn’t stop most individuals from donating blood. If you happen to’ve had the virus and been symptom free for 14 days you’ll be able to donate. You can too donate whether or not you might be vaccinated or not, based on Vitalant.

Results of the Blood Donation Scarcity

The American Purple Cross, which provides 40 p.c of U.S. blood, has restricted provide to hospitals within the early months of 2022. Some amenities are receiving lower than 1 / 4 of the blood merchandise they request, based on the group.

Vitalant has seen typical donations fall quick by 4,500 donors since December.

“Now could be the time when new blood donors, people who haven’t given shortly and common donors are all wanted to step up and assist handle this crucial healthcare situation,” stated Cliff Numark, Vitalant senior vp. “Astonishingly, solely about 3% of the inhabitants donates blood, however most individuals are eligible.”

Veteran journalist Katherine Snow Smith is a former employees author at The BaghdadTime. She covers methods to make cash, lower your expenses and different subjects. Her work has appeared within the Tampa Bay Occasions, Charlotte Enterprise Journal and Greenville (S.C.) Information




Source link

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button