CASTLETON, Vt. (WCAX) – The Red Cross is trying to stock up on blood before the busy holiday season and Vermonters are stepping up, giving an added emphasis to Giving Tuesday.
“Well, they were there for me when I needed a transfusion of two pints after I broke my rib, so…” said Ted Day, who was one of many Castleton area residents who responded to Tuesday’s emergency call for donors. He says he has been donating to the American Red Cross for half a century and tries to help out a couple of times a year to make a difference for someone else. “I like giving blood, especially a double red. They get more bang for their buck out of it. They get an equivalent of two donations. It’s anonymous, it is a good thing to do.”
The Red Cross kicked off its Gift of Life Marathon blood drive at the Vermont State University Castleton campus. They had about 73 appointments along with a few walk-ins and are hoping to collect about 70 pints of blood.
The organization’s Sarah Lemnah says there has been a nationwide shortage of donations in recent years but that Vermont seems to be finally catching up. “We actually sometimes have a surplus and we actually help other states out. But going into December, we probably will, we probably could go into a shortage. That’s why we are doing these big drives now, to try to get ahead of that,” she said.
The organization will hold three more events in Rutland County with the goal of collecting 429 pints of blood. Each pint can save up to three lives.
Donors say you need to bleed to help those in need. “I have been donating blood for about 20 to 30 years now. You can’t make blood. The only way patients who need it can get it is by donating,” said Scott Manley of Clarendon.
The next blood drive is on Thursday at Rutland High School.