PARSIPPANY — Community Blood Services extends a sincere thank you to its many blood, plasma and platelet donors for their ongoing lifesaving donations during 2015 and invites those donors who are eligible this January to help celebrate National Blood Donor Month by making their next donation.
“We want to thank our volunteer donors during National Blood Donor Month for their ongoing donations and remind them how important they are to the patients whose lives they help to save in our community hospitals,” said Karen Ferriday, director of community affairs at Community Blood Services.
Donors will receive a mystery gift card as a thank you when they donate on Sunday or Monday, January 3 or 4 at a New Jersey donor center to help boost the post-holiday supply. The Paramus and Parsippany centers are open on Sunday and the Paramus, Montvale and Lincoln Park donor centers are open on Monday.
Ferriday said there is a critical need for Type O negative blood and platelets to rebuild the supply following the holiday season when the supply traditionally dips.
“It’s important that we continue to build our supply in case illness and inclement weather during the winter months keeps donors away or result in canceled blood drives,” Ferriday said. As the new year begins, she asked that donors consider donating blood regularly in 2016, noting more than 44,000 blood donations are needed daily throughout the U.S.
Donors can call (201) 251-3703 or click here to make an appointment to donate or to find a convenient donor collection site or mobile blood drive in New Jersey. Whole blood donors also can walk in to any donor center but appointments are needed to donate platelets.
Donors must be 17-75 years old (16 and 17 years old with parental consent) and weigh at least 110 pounds.
All blood types are needed to meet the needs of patients in the more than 20 hospitals Community Blood Services serves in New Jersey and New York but O negative is in most demand by hospitals because it can be transfused to any patient in need regardless of their blood type. Platelets are also needed to treat patients diagnosed with cancer or other blood disorders and AB male plasma is needed for trauma victims.
