ELKHART -- The South Bend Medical Foundation is looking for blood donors this holiday season.
"It's a challenge to find blood donors throughout the year, but it's definitely more of a challenge around the holidays because people are busy, they're traveling, they're trying to get their last-minute gifts, they're going to parties," said Colleen Hahn, manager of blood donor recruitment and community awareness. "And I think as a whole, our community takes blood donation kind of for granted because we believe blood will always be there."
The Medical Foundation recently opened a new blood donor room at Elkhart General Hospital in Room 2217 off the H elevator on Aug. 5. A donor center in the basement of the hospital closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A phlebotomist is at the blood donor room every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Since only one phlebotomist is on duty, the Medical Foundation encourages donors to make appointments.
Appointments also can also be made for blood donations at the Medical Foundation's mobile vehicles that move around southwest Michigan and northern Indiana. The hours of operation for each location varies.
"We have three of these units that go out usually twice a day, seven days a week, all throughout Michiana," said Cody Cwidak, South Bend Medical Foundation blood mobile transportation coordinator.
There are also four fixed sites for donating blood in addition to the mobile sites. The goal is to have at least 30 donors between two mobile sites.
Donations through the South Bend Medical Foundation are different from those through the American Red Cross because the donations stay local. Cwidak said one unit of donated blood can save three lives.
"All types of blood are important," said Angela Davis, remote bleed specialist. "There's no specific type of blood that's not important. We need all types of blood. They prefer to have O type because O is the universal type, but all blood types are important."
Elkhart General Hospital will host a blood drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 26, in addition to others around the area.