The details
We Are Blood was founded in 1951 and now serves 10 counties across central Texas, including Travis, Hays Bastrop and Williamson. The organization supplies donations for more than 50 medical facilities for life-saving medical treatments like blood transfusions. In order to meet demand, they need to collect about 200 blood donations daily to support the hospitals they serve, according to vice president of community engagement Nick Candeo.
The timing of the Giving Double campaign comes from a routine decrease in blood donations during the summer months, said Candeo. We Are Blood typically sees a 20% decrease in donations in summertime, a fluctuation that Candeo attributes to residents traveling, family commitments and schools being closed for break. Combined with a steadily growing demand for blood donations as populations in Central Texas continue to rise, the campaign helps offset the dip in donations.
“Population growth, which means higher incidences of accidents, more people receiving surgeries here in our community, and also the building of new hospitals and the expansion of hospitals, including new programs that they're offering—all of that has led to more donations needed in our own community than ever before,” Candeo said.
The local impact
The campaign previously ran in June; last year We Are Blood collected 5,609 blood donations and $16,130 in donations for participating nonprofits.
“It's a really awesome opportunity to link in folks' minds the act of giving back and how universal that is to helping patients across Central Texas, but about how there's amazing nonprofits serving Central Texans and how we can connect and kind of empower those organizations through an act of giving double,” Candeo said.
Over the course of the pandemic and in the years that followed Candeo said We Are Blood had fewer donors in the 17-20s range giving blood—a trend he believes is due to online schooling practices becoming more common. Through campaigns like Giving Double, Candeo said the organization hopes to attract donors of all ages and backgrounds, but especially a younger demographic.
“It's great for us to be able to connect with younger individuals and give them a pleasant experience and the first experience with donating blood that they'll remember and donate throughout the rest of their lives,” Candeo said.
Get involved
In addition to blood donors, Candeo said We Are Blood needs more communities to host mobile blood donation sites, as they have four stationary donation centers serving 10 counties. Nearly half of overall blood donations come from mobile sites, Candeo said, and with schools being out of session mobile sites are more sparse during summer.
“Becoming a mobile blood drive host means that you're making blood donation more accessible for your own community and then you're also helping to ensure that we can maintain an adequate blood supply,” Candeo said.
More information about hosting a mobile donation site can be found here.
A quick note
Eligibility requirements for donation include being at least 17 years old and at least 115 pounds for a whole blood donation. Before donation, each participant completes a self-administered questionnaire to determine eligibility. Additionally, an individual administers a pre-health check to follow up on any answers that may prevent donation, as well as take the donor's temperature, blood pressure and iron levels.
A full list of eligibility requirements can be found here.
“It's only 45 minutes and only 15 minutes of that time is actually in the bed donating,” Candeo said. “That means that you're only taking a small part of your day to come and make a donation, but you're going to make a life-saving difference for a local patient and really a life-changing difference for their family when you come and make a donation.”
