A NEED FOR BLOOD
Mayor Madden donates blood at Red Cross blood drive
“It’s another way to give, it’s easy, doesn’t cost you anything, it’s painless, it’s quick, there’s plenty of opportunities to give. You can find on the Red Cross website locations of blood drives all around the Capital Region.” — Troy Mayor Patrick Madden
TROY, N.Y.>> Giving Tuesday also meant giving blood in Troy. The American Red Cross hosted its Collar City collection drive at the Capital District Educational Opportunity Center.
The blood drive, which was also taking place at Hudson Valley Community College, encouraged people to give blood in an effort to eliminate a shortage of blood in the winter.
“They say each blood donation is capable of saving three lives, so it’s a pretty good return on your time, you get cookies at the end and it’s an easy thing to do and it’s important,” Troy Mayor Patrick Madden said after donating blood Tuesday morning during the hour-long process.
“This time of year, there’s shortages and there’s no way to manufacture artificial blood, so when you need blood you need somebody to have given in the past,” Mayor Madden added of the need for more donations.
Mayor Madden also spoke more of the benefits of donating blood and how others can help.
“It’s another way to give, it’s easy, doesn’t cost you anything, it’s painless, it’s quick, there’s plenty of opportunities to give,” Mayor Madden said. “You can find on the Red Cross website locations of blood drives all around the Capital Region. Any time you want, you can go to the Red Cross offices and give. Once you start doing it you realize how easy it is and it’s easy to keep coming back and doing it again.”
Also stressing the importance and need for
blood donations was site supervisor Jaimy Jensen.
“It’s really important to have people come in and donate. We have people who are always getting in accidents, who have diseases that blood helps save their lives,” Jensen said of the numerous reasons why people should give.
“We even separate the blood into different components, so the plasma will help burn victims, the red blood cells will help trauma victims, platelets can help cancer patients, so one donation can go a really long way. The more people that come in and donate blood the better,” Jensen added.
Jensen also noted that people can go to their web- site and put in their zip code and the next blood drive will pop up for them.
The next blood drive in Troy takes place Wednesday, Dec. 5 at the RPI Mueller Center from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
All eligible blood donors can make appointments via the blood donor app, visiting www. redcrossblood. org or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS