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Member Center Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center Has Strong Donor Turnout for Winter Blood Drive in Greater St. Louis Area

The holiday season is a hectic time of the year. Unfortunately, blood donations are typically at their lowest during the harsh winter months. To help sustain the community blood supply during this time, Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, in partnership with Greater St. Louis area radio station, KSHE-95 FM, holds an annual winter blood drive.  

The 2019 KSHE Winter Blood Drive took place over two days (December 13-14, 2019) and had substantial local turnout, including over 300 first-time donors. Blood donations were accepted at nine locations – one MVRBC donor center and eight mobile drives – spanning two states (Missouri and Illinois). With the promotional efforts of KSHE 95 (including providing commemorative t-shirts, live on-site broadcasts, and the chance to win free sporting event tickets donated by sponsor XFL team, St. Louis BattleHawks™), the event was responsible for registering and procuring donations from over 2200 donors. With such impressive donor turnout, the KSHE Winter Blood Drive continues to be one of the largest blood drives in the Midwest.

Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center (headquartered in Davenport, IA) supplies blood and blood products to hospitals throughout the Midwest (including Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin). MVRBC uses IT Synergistics’ BECS system, , and hosting services in-house and out in the field. The bexWISE suite of blood establishment applications (which includes Affirm and Process for efficient blood collection) was used to process the high volume of donations handled by MVRBC staff during this event, both at mobile locations and the donor center. MVRBC drew over 2200 red cells and a couple dozen platelets.