August is Blood Assurance Month
Need for donations doesn’t take a summer break
For more than 40 years, Blood Assurance has served all North Georgia and the Tennessee Valley.
There is no way to know how many lives have been saved since the non-profit bloodbank was created in 1972. But the need for donors never ends — particularly during the summer.
Year-round, Blood Assurance needs 450 units of blood each day to meet the needs of the region’s hospitals.
Several factors combine to create critical shortages: high schools, which regularly schedule blood drives during the school year, are closed; hot weather curtails mobile bloodmobile visits to local factories; and many families are traveling or otherwise busy during the vacation season.
While donations may decline with the season, demand remains constant, according to Chip Catlett, chairman of Blood Assurance’s North Georgia Advisory Board.
“There is a nationwide blood shortage, particularly in our area, in August,” he said.
Each donation, which takes about 20 minutes, provides something that cannot be bought.
“It’s all volunteers,” Catlett said. “Whatever you give goes toward saving lives.”
To raise awareness of the need, elected officials in both Walker and Catoosa counties are declaring August as Blood Assurance Month.
The official proclamation states that donors in the two counties “are caring and committed people, responsive to the needs of others,” and the Blood Assurance organization and staff “contribute to the health of their fellow citizens by drawing, transporting, testing and supplying blood to save lives every day.”