Steinbach blood donations on the rise

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This article was published 13/05/2019 (1802 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Got blood? According to Canadian Blood Services, Steinbach does.

Since April 2018, Steinbach has met 97 percent of its donation goals, Canadian Blood Services (CBS) Territory Manager Steve Raizen told city council last Tuesday evening.

Raizen said CBS aims to collect 96 units—one unit per donor-every time the clinic visits Steinbach. Though half of donation events in Steinbach did not meet this goal, others provided higher than average donations allowing CBS to achieve 97 percent of its donation goal.

About six percent of Steinbach residents donate blood, though some of those donors are from surrounding areas as well. To put it into perspective, CBS has the same donation goal when the clinic visits Brandon—a city three times the size of Steinbach, Raizen told council.

Raizen said it would be helpful for the donations to be more consistent, since it’s easier to process them gradually. The problem is the Steinbach clinic comes on Mondays, which coincides with a lot of long weekends over the summer.

Of course, CBS is always looking for more donors. There were 210 new donors this past year, which is 140 fewer than its goal. The next clinic is on May 20.

Businesses can also get involved by working with CBS to raise awareness, book group donations and adopt donation events. Anyone with business inquiries can contact Steve Raizen at (204) 789-1063.

Update: Corrects donation event participation details.