Red Cross: Donors especially needed over holidays

Officials with the American Red Cross are hoping many Fayette residents will donate blood at a day-long drive on Friday, Jan. 4 at the Gathering Place community center in Peachtree City.

As usual, blood supply dwindles in late December and early January because regular donors are on vacation and are preoccupied with other holiday-related activities, Red Cross officials said.

The drive will last from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The Gathering Place is located just off McIntosh Trail across from Huddleston Elementary School.

To schedule an appointment to donate blood, visit www.givelife.org or call 1-800-448-3543.

The Southern Blood Services Region needs at least 1,200 people to give blood each weekday to meet the needs of more than 130 hospitals in the region. Volunteers should be at least 17 years old and weigh no less than 110 pounds.

“The American Red Cross depends on caring blood donors to help provide blood for hospital patients needing transfusions to survive,” said Randy Edwards, chief executive officer, American Red Cross Southern Blood Services Region. “Without blood drives and dedicated people who coordinate them, many of these life-saving donations would not be possible.”

The American Red Cross Blood Services, Southern Region, collected more than 286,000 units of blood in 2006. More than 78 percent of those units were collected at blood drives.

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