Blood Banks: Blood Donations Need to Be A Protractive Effort

When old friend Mark Gelfand, manager of the famous Terrace on the Park, told me he was hosting a blood drive there with Long Island Blood Services providing the technicians, I knew I had to go and do my share.
When I arrived, Mark admitted he never anticipated on such short notice the overwhelming response by the public. Opening at 9:00 a.m., by 3:00 p.m. when I had finished donating blood, drive supervisor Joan Liang, had closed registration.
"We need people to hold off their donations because you can only give blood every 35 days and our blood banks are now full!" Ms. Liang shared.
Having waited for over three hours, two Queens Center Mall employees, Terri Shalewitz and Rachel DAngelo, said, "It was worth the wait just to feel we did something to help." Clara Pena of E. Elmhurst, the phlebotomist who took my blood, admitted in an exhausted voice, "Im so tired, but Im needed so I must keep working," and indeed she did.
The Long Island Blood Services Queens donor recruitment manager Sue Lingenfelter begged our readers to help in 35 days. "We need businesses and organizations to continue to help us and set up blood banks so we can be less dependent on blood from foreign countries."
To help call (516) 478-5026 or email sue_lingenfelter@ccmail.nybc.org .