Giving Blood Is A Day of Service Kindness, Saves Lives
DENVER (CBS4) – In the wake of coronavirus, Xcel Energy has reimagined Day of Service. This year, it runs for 10-days, from September 9th through the 19th. They have set up some smaller projects and put together some take home projects for employees to do. For the rest of the Day of Service participants they developed a bingo card which has 24 suggested acts of kindness and service on it. All Coloradans are encouraged to work through as many of the squares as they can, take pictures of their projects and post them to social media, tagging XcelEnergyCO and using #XEDOS
The bingo card features suggestions like "rake your neighbors leaves," "thank a front line worker," and "give blood."
LINK: Download the Day of Service Bingo Card
"Blood donation is one of those things that we would encourage people to do not just once a year, but two or three times a year, because it's the blood on the shelf that saves lives. It always has to be ready to go, and it has a limited shelf life," said Liz Lambert, Communications Manager for Vitalant.
The number of blood donation opportunities has dropped due to COVID, because schools and businesses are not able to hold the blood collection events they usually do. Also, Vitalant is not able to send it's Bloodmobiles out due to social distancing rules. So right now, the blood supply is relying on donors to take the initiative by making an appointment at a blood donation center.
"Blood donation is essential, and so it's important that people continue to come and give blood in the coming days, and weeks, and months to help ensure that we can meet every patient need as it arises, whether it's a surgery, a trauma, everyday medical procedures that require blood, medical disorders and treatments. All of those needs continue despite what's going on with COVID," Lambert explained.
