The Central Illinois Community Blood Center will be collecting blood donations at tomorrow night’s National Night Out event.
The third annual Jacksonville Night Out event takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Community Park in Jacksonville, and is geared towards strengthening the relationship between local law enforcement and area residents. However, while the main objective of National Night Out is developing and furthering that relationship, tomorrow night’s event will also feature a blood mobile.
Diana Eldridge with the Central Illinois Community Blood Center says they will be gathering donations from area residents. She explains that there is typically an increased need for blood donations throughout the summer months.
“We have seen a slow down, which is normal for summer months. People are doing family vacations, they’re busy with their kids being out of school. We don’t have the high school blood drives that we normally have during the school year. So we do see a slow down during the summer months of blood donations, but unfortunately, there’s no slow down for the need, so we are always asking people to come in and stop by the center. We’re asking people to roll up their sleeves and come out and donate if they can,” says Eldridge.
Aside from tomorrow night’s event, the Central Illinois Community Blood Center holds blood drives at Passavant Area Hospital the first two Mondays of every month.