Bloglander

Of all the ways you could make charitible donations this holiday season, one of the easiest (and cheapest) is donating your blood. And after the snow scared off donors today, the Inland Northwest Blood Center needs you.

“We have received about half as many people today as we did on Tuesday before the snow hit, which is always a concern because we are the only provider of blood to the area’s hospitals,” says Elizabeth Giles at the INBC.

The holidays are a difficult time for the blood center anyway, because people get too busy to donate. At the same time, the need for blood donations goes up — there are more accidents in the winter because of the weather, and more people schedule surgeries when they have time to recover around the holidays.

The INBC is making it more convenient to give blood during its Holiday Heroes Blood Drive, with lots of locations around the area. Everyone who shows up to donate gets a T-shirt and the chance to win a dream vacation travel voucher. (It would be pretty awesome to tell everyone you paid for your vacation with blood.)

Giles says they try to make the holiday blood drive fun, but it's getting to the serious point where they really just need more donors to come through the door. The donation centers in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene open at 7 am tomorrow morning so people can stop by before work. 

The full list of locations and times is available at inbcsaves.org, or you can schedule an appointment by calling 800-423-0151. Before donating, you should eat a good meal, be well-hydrated and make sure you’re not feeling sick. Being a little scared of needles doesn’t count as sick.