Ice cream lures donors to blood center

Baby, it’s cold outside – not exactly the weather for ice cream. But ice cream’s what you’ll get, along with the warm satisfaction of helping someone in trouble, when you donate blood this month at the Eastern Maine Medical Center Blood Donor Program in Bangor.

January is National Blood Donor Month, and donor recruiter Lora McGeechan hopes area residents will roll up their sleeves for their fellow Mainers, even if they’ve never done it before.

“Right now the blood supply is very low,” she said Thursday. “Cold weather has canceled some of our blood drives, and people don’t like to come out when it’s so cold.”

To sweeten the deal, McGeechan is offering a pint of ice cream to anyone who donates a pint of blood Monday, Jan. 19. “A pint for a pint,” she said. “It’s kind of catchy.”

Blood donated to the Eastern Maine Medical Center Blood Donor Program stays at Eastern Maine Medical Center for the most part, although, McGeechan said, she will provide blood to Saint Joseph Healthcare and other area facilities in a pinch. “We’re very small,” she said of the 2-year-old organization, “but we’re growing.”

A short distance away, the venerable American Red Cross Blood Center is also making warm deals for donors who brave the cold weather. Recruiter Angela Bilodeau said donors coming through the doors in January can register to win tickets to a New England Patriots football game or a trip to Hawaii.

The Red Cross Winter Festival, scheduled for Jan. 31, will feature special foods and giveaways such as ski-lift tickets, snowshoes and other wintry enjoyments for active donors. “And for committed cold-weather couch potatoes, there will be free movie rentals,” Bilodeau said.

Blood from the Red Cross Blood Center is processed in Massachusetts and redistributed throughout New England. A unit typically is used within a few days of being processed.

All blood types are in critically short supply right now, Bilodeau said. “Every year, the demand for blood goes up, but the number of donors doesn’t,” she said.

New medical technologies make it more likely that people will survive severe traumas and illnesses – that’s the good news, Bilodeau said, but “the flip side is that the demand for blood has risen dramatically.”

More than 40 percent of the blood used in the eastern Maine area is given to cancer patients, she said. Each unit of blood can be processed into several lifesaving products.

Both the Red Cross Blood Center on Hammond Street and the Eastern Maine Medical Center Blood Donor Program on Union Street have scheduled a number of community blood drives this month, as well as regular hours on-site. Donors should plan on spending one to two hours to give a unit of blood. Appointments are encouraged, but both programs extend a warm welcome to walk-in donors as well.

Call the Eastern Maine Medical Center Blood Donor Program at 262-8797 or the American Red Cross Blood Center at 941-2900.