CEO Sends Message to Encourage Donations During Board Blood Drive

Memorial Day weekend approaches.  It’s the unofficial start of the summer season, when blood donations typically drop.  The Greater Cleveland Chapter Board of Directors is sponsoring a blood drive tomorrow, the Thursday before Memorial Day, at Regional Headquarters, 3747 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.  Regional CEO Mike Parks issued the following message:

Northeast Ohio Red Cross Family: 

As a reminder, on Thursday, May 25^th from 1:00-6:00 pm, let’s roll up our sleeves and help save lives!  The American Red Cross Greater Cleveland Chapter will hold a blood drive sponsored by the Board of Directors.  The Red Cross has over 130 years of experience providing humanitarian aid – including more than 70 years of supplying blood to those in need.

Each pint of blood we collect can help save up to three lives and will touch the lives of so many more. What a great way to pay it forward and make an impact on people in our community and across the country.  We are very excited about the drive and I hope you are too.

We are planning some great giveaways for that day.  Let’s show our community and the patients in need of blood just how much we can do.  There are many ways you can help, but most importantly we hope you come out to donate.  It’s not every day that we do something that has such a lifesaving impact. Let’s blow this out of the water! Feel free to invite your family, friends and co-workers to support this critical initiative.  I plan to be first in line at 1:00 pm with my sleeve rolled up!!

Individuals who are at least 17 years of age (16 with parental consent), weigh at least 110 pounds and in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood.  If you are able and eligible to give blood, please make an appointment at www.redcrossblood.org using sponsor code NEOBOARD or call 1-800-RED CROSS.  In addition, you can schedule and track your donation by using the Blood Donor App.  It is free and available for download on iPhoneTM and AndroidTM devices through the App StoreSM and Google PlayTM or by texting BLOODAPP to 90999 for a link to download the App.

On the day of donation, blood donors can save time by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online prior to arriving at the blood drive by visiting www.redcrossblood.org/RapidPass and following the instructions on the site.  I just found out that the President of Biomedical Services, Shaun Gilmore, and his senior leadership team will be visiting us on Thursday—what better way to demonstrate our commitment to One Red Cross than having a highly successful blood drive—we might even convince them to roll up their sleeves!!

Thank you for supporting the American Red Cross!…Best regards, Mike