On Wednesday, November 17, the St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church held its 40th blood drive since the Blood Drive Ministry was formed there in May, 2002.
“We collected about 62 units of blood, which will help to save around 186 lives!” reported Blood Drive Ministry Chairperson Angela Arettines. “In all over these 20 years, our donors have helped to save up to 5,088 lives!”
“The fact that our church has returned to hosting blood drives, with only the June 2020 drive skipped because of the pandemic, is no small thing. As New York Blood Center (NYBC) Assistant Director of Donor Recruitment, Tina Kovolisky reported: “This pandemic has had a devastating effect on our blood supply with 100,000 fewer donations this year alone. Each month, we are hovering at a barely sufficient inventory to meet the needs of our hospitals. In normal times, a deficit could be made up with help from other blood centers across the nation, but all are experiencing the same shortages”.
“The New York Blood Center was featured on the Dr. Oz Show on Monday, November 15. The segment is available at https://www.doctoroz.com/donate-blood-safe-pandemic. Viewers learned that we are facing a national blood shortage in hospitals all across this country.
Dr. Oz shared that, “As a result of this pandemic, blood donations and supply levels are so low that some hospitals are forced to delay elective surgeries and potentially life-saving treatments to reserve blood”.
Viewers also learned about Dr. Oz’s #JustMyType challenge to get as many people as possible to a blood drive to make a life-saving donation. Dr. Oz interviewed Senior Executive Director of Donor Recruitment and Marketing of the NYBC Andrea Cefarelli, who shared the following:
“The pandemic really destroyed the foundation on which we collect blood. Thousands of organizations
pre-pandemichad robust blood programs for their employees, their members, or their congregations; and they have been slow to return to hosting blood drives. In addition, people are still working from home. Our lives have changed; so corporations that used to host drives don’t have their employees in the office. People are also taking early retirement, and organizations are struggling to hire. Prior to the pandemic, if there was a blood shortage in one portion of the country, like after 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, or Hurricane Harvey in Texas, blood centers across the country shared with one another. There isn’t enough blood in the country for blood centers to bail each other out right now.”
