Red Cross to boost blood collection efforts January declared donor month

BANGOR – When complications developed after the birth of her son, Jennifer Sheffer was rushed to surgery.

She would have died on the operating table if not for an unknown blood donor.

“If it hadn’t been for that donor, my son wouldn’t have a mom,” Sheffer said Monday, at the American Red Cross Blood Donor Center in Bangor.

Sheffer, 36, now lives in Brewer with her 4-year-old son, Damian, and her husband, Ed.

The Red Cross hopes to make more stories like hers possible. At an open house at the Bangor donor center on Hammond Street on Monday evening, the organization announced plans to increase its blood collections by an additional 2,000 units this year in Maine, bringing the goal in 2007 to 7,330 units.

The increased need for donations comes, in part, from an aging Maine population, which will require more blood transfusions, Maureen Baldini, director of Maine and New Hampshire operations for the Red Cross, said.

To meet its goal, Baldini said the Bangor Blood Donor Center would now be open Tuesday through Friday, as well as two Saturdays a month. It will also be working with hospitals and other groups throughout the state to spread awareness of collection efforts.

Gov. John Baldacci was at the open house to commend the efforts of Red Cross and emphasize the importance of blood donation. “Blood is always needed, it’s critical, it saves lives,” Baldacci said.

The governor also officially declared January as National Blood Donor Month in Maine.

Officials at the Red Cross introduced their new Emergency Response Vehicle, which sat outside the donor center and was open to anyone who wanted a tour. The ERV looks like an everyday ambulance, but is capable of much more. In the event of a disaster, such as floods, fires, pandemics, hurricanes, and now even earthquakes, the agency’s newest vehicle “can provide food and drink for about 500,” Michael Sirota, development director for the Pine Tree Chapter of the Red Cross, said.

“[The ERV] helps us respond faster and more efficiently as we move into the future,” Suzan Bell, executive director of the Pine Tree Chapter, said.