Missouri state employees are helping the American Red Cross meet its end of the year push to collect blood donations.
The Red Cross hosted a state employee blood drive Tuesday afternoon on the second floor of the Governor's Office Building.
"It's kind of your civic duty to do your part," said Stacy McMillan, an engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation who was among the first in line. "I'm healthy and able, so might as well."
McMillan said he tries to donate blood a couple times each year. It's apparent the Red Cross ramps up its blood collection efforts at the end of the year, he said, based on the communication he's received from the nonprofit.
"I was due for a donation, and they've been hounding me pretty hard," he said. "It's no different from any other time. I'm just glad to chip in."
Rebecca Gordon, executive director of the Central and Northern Missouri chapter of the American Red Cross, said blood drives like the one Tuesday are "incredibly critical" for ensuring the Red Cross can serve its healthcare partners.
One in seven patients entering a hospital need a blood transfusion, according to the Red Cross, which supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood. The organization collects approximately 12,500 blood donations and nearly 3,000 platelet donations daily to meet demand across 2,500 hospitals and transfusion centers, according to its website. The Red Cross began 2022 facing the most dramatic national blood shortage in more than a decade. The COVID-19 pandemic created collection challenges and kept hospital demand high.
Donations have since minimized those concerns, but the recent winter storm canceled hundreds of blood drives around the nation, causing more than 6,500 blood and platelet donations to go uncollected, according a Red Cross news release.
"This is a very important time to collect blood right now," Gordon said. "People tend to be gone on the holidays, and so our donations go down a little bit. So we try to focus this week to end out the year with a good level of blood products that can be used whenever needed."
"Here in Central Missouri, we service a number of hospitals in Central and Northern Missouri and so it's incredibly critical to maintain those blood supplies," she added.
Denis Gladbach was an early donor at Tuesday's drive. He said it had been nearly 30 years since he had been in the chair.
Starting in 1999, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned people who were potentially exposed to mad cow disease in Europe between 1980-2001 from donating blood. Collectors like the Red Cross routinely deferred potential donors as a result.
That ban was modified in 2020 and effectively lifted this year, leading to the Red Cross accepting those donors in October.
Gladbach served in the military in Europe and couldn't give blood until recently. He said his daughter asked him to volunteer, and he was happy to do it now that he's eligible.
If you have the opportunity to help others, you take it, Gladbach said.
"We need to do more to convince more people to participate," he said. "The Red Cross always needs more donors."
Gladbach said he thinks updated guidelines and processes at the Red Cross make it easier to donate blood, adding his experience Tuesday morning was quick and easy.
"You can do a lot of things online now that you couldn't do before," he said.
Ryan Pivoney/News Tribune Stacy McMillan, an engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation, donates blood to the American Red Cross Tuesday at the Governor's Office Building. McMillan said he tries to donate blood a couple times each year.