Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center celebrates 50-year milestone

The Houston-based community blood center serves 170 hospitals and healthcare facilities in a 26-county area. It is also the only blood provider to Houston and its surrounding communities that serves 24 hours a day and seven days a week, according to the center’s website.

One blood donation can help up to three people who need surgeries, cancer treatments or are enduring chronic illnesses or trauma, Pina said. To meet the community’s needs, the center needs about 1,000 donations a day.

How we got here

Pina said the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center got their start after the Harris County Medical Society recognized the community needed a stable blood supply to make sure they could continually improve patient care.

“That’s how we came to be,” Pina said. “We started off very small and over the years, as the population grew and the need grew, our organization did as well.”

What’s being done

So far, the center has received 6,427 more donations this year compared to 2024 at the same time, Pina confirmed to Community Impact.

In 2024, the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center saw:

• 433,506 lives saved
• 139,347 total donors
• 50,148 first-time donors
• 322,571 total units donated
• 533 volunteers
• 19,420 volunteer hours

One of this year’s donors was Marsha Asplin, who reached a milestone of 1,600 units, or 200 gallons of blood donated over the 42 years she has volunteered with the organization, Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center confirmed in an April 24 news release.

According to the release, Asplin was the first woman in the organization’s history to donate 200 gallons of blood, and she impacted up to 4,800 lives with her donations.

Looking ahead

Pina said the organization is now turning their eyes to the next few months and working to encourage donations, since they can drop by almost 7% over the summer season.

“Summertime is often a time where people kind of put blood donation on the back burner, because they're traveling, they're doing more things that they don't normally do,” Pina said.

Pina said neighborhood donor centers will expand their operation hours, and the center will hold daily mobile blood drives throughout the community to increase the opportunity to donate. The center is also offering incentives such as free A1C screening for donors throughout the end of the year.

One more thing

Pina said the center is also looking at the next 50 years and how it can expand the center, such as putting a greater focus on the contributions to research and opening a new building across the street from the center’s headquarters to serve as their new donor room. Pina said the new donor building will open this year.

“We want to celebrate the 50 years of who we are going to be and how we can serve bigger and how we can save more lives, not only through saving people with transfusions, but also helping provide cures for medical mysteries that exist today,” Pina said.

Potential donors can learn where they can donate blood at this link.

If someone isn’t eligible to donate blood, Pina said they can serve the center by hosting a blood drive or volunteering their time through the center’s volunteer program.