John Day blood drives exceed donation expectations

JOHN DAY – American Red Cross PNW Account Manager Rebecca O’Rourke has announced overwhelming success at last week’s local blood drives. They were held by the Red Cross John Day Community at the LDS Church for two days, and one day with the Strawberry Wilderness Clinic at the ambulance barn. O’Rourke was recently on KJDY’s Coffee Time and said the total units donated exceeded their expectations:

“We usually average maybe 20 to 24 [units] each day. This time we were over that, so for a total of two days is 524 donations.  Then, we were in town an extra day which was over at the Strawberry Clinic, and we had 32 donors present and the majority of them were staffed from the clinic. Twenty of them were first-time donors. Those are, like, numbers that are going to be circulating around my office for a long time [chuckle].”

O’Rourke noted the next American Red Cross Blood Drives hosted by the John Day Community will be August 16^th and 17^th at the LDS Church. Interested donors call log on to redcrossblood.org, or call 1-800-RED CROSS to schedule a donation. For every pint of blood donated, potentially three lives can be saved.

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