Red Cross Tries To Make Up For Lost Blood Donations

Wisconsin’s chapter of the American Red Cross is trying to make up for lost blood donations after last week’s inclement weather. Donation centers in three cities are tempting donors with Wisconsin Badger t-shirts.Twenty-four blood drives were canceled after last week’s snowfall. That’s according to the Badger Hawkeye Chapter of the Red Cross which covers Wisconsin, Michigan’s UP, and parts of Iowa.

Drives in Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay offered donors a bright red Badgers t-shirt in return for a pint of blood.

One Green Bay student, Yesenia, gave part of her holiday vacation to donating, “It’s nice to know that you can do something so easy and it can help three people. You can save someone’s life.”

Six of the blood drives canceled last week were in the Green Bay area.Michelle Otero recruits donors for the Red Cross in northeastern Wisconsin.She says offering little things, like Badgers t-shirts, is enough extra incentive to bring people in who have donated before, but not recently, or who never have.

She also says bad weather keeps regular donors home, “Last year we really didn’t have a winter here in this area so we weren’t impacted by weather the way we have been already this year. We had to cancel over 100 units collected last Thursday because of that big snow storm. And so we are asking people to come donate to help make up from those cancelations. And with the way the weather is looking it looks like we’ll have some more winter ahead of us.”

December is a traditionally slow time for donations because of weather and holiday traveling. This year Otero says some regular donors aren’t eligible to give blood now after having done so shortly after superstorm Sandy hit the east coast last month.