>>16-YEAR-OLD PARENTAL CONSENT FORM

Movie Madness

July 6-11

Donate blood at a KBC donor center and enjoy a movie on us!

Each donor will receive two free passes to an area cinema!

Lexington & Andover Donor Centers

Donors will receive passes for Amstar Cinema in Brannon Crossing (located off Nicholasville Road in Brannon Crossing).

Somerset Donor Center

Donors will receive passes for Somerset Cinema8.

Pikeville Donor Center

Donors will receive passes for Riverfill 10 Cinemas.

New Location!

Andover Donor Center Opens July 6

Kentucky Blood Center is opening its second Lexington location at 8 a.m. July 6.

The Andover Donor Center is located at 3130 Maple Leaf Drive, Suite 103, in the Andover Shoppes off Man-O-War.

The operating hours of this donor-friendly location will be:

Monday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 2:3 p.m.

Summertime Blood Donor Will Win New Car

• Donate blood May 22 through Sept. 7 and have a chance to win a new Toyota Camry.

• Volunteer blood donors 18-years-old and older will automatically be entered into the drawing.

• Summer shortages are common nationally for multiple reasons.  High school and college blood drives, which provide more than 20 percent of blood donations, are on break.  Further, blood drive results are impacted because of vacations.

• KBC Summer Car Giveaway Rules & Conditions.

2009 Charity Challenge

Charities Competing for Blood Donors

Kentucky charities are competing to win cash by recruiting blood donors during the second annual S&S Tire Blood Donor Charity Challenge May 1-31.

S&S Tire, the title sponsor again this year, will award a total of $15,000 in cash to the top six charities that recruit the most blood donors. This is a $5,000 increase over the amount they committed in the first year.

Also, new this year, the competition is regionalized. There will be a winner and runner-up from three regions: the Lexington, Pikeville and Somerset regions. Winners will receive $3,500 while the three runners-up each will be awarded $1,500.

• Competition rules and the list of counties in each region can be found here.

• See the final standings here.

The deadline for charities to register was April 17.

Kentucky Blood Center officials say recently-approved federal funding will facilitate the opening of a second donor center in Lexington as part of their efforts to meet growing hospital demand for blood.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-6th District, announced $238,000 in federal funding for equipment to screen, collect and test blood donations during a recent press conference at the KBC headquarters, 3121 Beaumont Centre Circle.

"Saving a life can be as simple as donating blood," Chandler said. "With this federal money, the new center, and this new testing equipment, we can make the process much better and more efficient--saving many more lives in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and making everyone a little safer."

The funding will support high-tech blood testing, screening and collections equipment that will be utilized in a new, satellite donor center expected to open in July at the Andover Shoppes, 3130 Mapleleaf Dr., said William Reed, KBC President & CEO. 

KBC will be leasing 4,800 square feet of retail space (previously occupied by a home decorating and design store that is relocating) to open the satellite donor center. In its first year of operation, the Andover Blood Donor Center is expected to add an additional 3,000 pints of blood and 1,000 single-donor-platelets to hospital inventories.

Reed said the new donor center is a key element in KBC’s plans to continue increasing the amount of blood products it provides to Kentucky hospitals. KBC must collect seven percent more red blood cells and 27 percent  more single-donor platelets in order to meet growing demand, he said.

Single-donor-platelets are donated with the use of specialized equipment that collects only the needed blood product.

The new donor center will be strategically located near a high percentage of potential blood donors. Because only two out of 100 individuals donate blood, he added, convenient locations are increasingly important. Five new jobs will be created as a result of the donor center.

The Kentucky Blood Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring a safe, adequate blood supply for patients at nearly 70 Kentucky hospitals and clinics in more than 60 counties. In the past year KBC processed and distributed 82,000 red blood cell units and 127,000 blood components in total.

National honor awarded

Toyota: 'Corporation of the Year'

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky was spotlighted nationally for its commitment to blood donation when it was named Corporation of the Year by America’s Blood Centers March 16 in Washington, D.C. Dan May, a human resources specialist with Toyota who is their blood drive chairperson and a KBC board member, accepted the award at a ceremony there.

The company is renowned worldwide for its focus on efficiency and just-in-time manufacturing. So, when other businesses claim they don’t have time to host a blood drive, the Kentucky Blood Center highlights its most prolific donor group up as an example to follow. 

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Sickle Cell Sabbath

The Kentucky Blood Center is adapting a nationally-recognized program that brings African-American churches to the forefront in recruiting needed blood donors.

Sickle Cell Sabbath is an awareness and recruitment program that will bring speakers to African-American churches and develop support for church blood drives. The original program, launched in St. Louis, led to a 60% increase in first-time African-American blood donors.

Quintissa Peake is the official spokesperson for the KBC program. A native of Neon, Kentucky, Quintissa is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and has lived her life with Sickle Cell.

Quintissa and her mother, Rosa Peake (both pictured to the left) have already been advocates for blood donation.

"I'm in it for life," said Rosa.

Churches interested in supporting the program should contact KBC Director of Donor Recruitment Bruce Maples at 859-519-3718.

Sickle cell disease is the most common genetic disease in African-Americans, affecting about one in 400 newborns. Patients with the disease have red blood cells that contain an abnormal type of hemoglobin that causes the normally round, flexible red blood cells to become stiff and sickle-shaped.
 

The sickle cells can't pass through tiny blood vessels, preventing blood from reaching some tissues, resulting in tissue and organ damage, even stroke.

Blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants replace sickle cells with healthy red blood cells. The blood of African-American donors is more likely to be compatible with that of children with the disease.

Children as young as six months with the disease can have a stroke. But regular blood transfusions can help prevent subsequent ones.