Give someone a lifetime of springtimes! Donate blood at MTSU

There’s still time to hop into an appointment next Monday, April 8, and help a neighbor share another beautiful Middle Tennessee spring by donating blood at MTSU.

The spring blood drive is set from noon to 6 p.m. April 8 in Room 322 inside the Keathley University Center, located at 1524 Military Memorial Drive in the center of campus.

A campus map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTParkingMap. Off-campus donors can obtain a special one-day permit at www.mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php.

This blood drive, sponsored by the university’s Department of Health and Human Performance, is open to MTSU students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends and neighbors across Middle Tennessee. Each donor will receive a T-shirt as thanks for her or his lifesaving help.

Donors can make an April 8 appointment today by visiting here, use the new “American Red Cross Blood” app, or text “BLOODAPP” to 90999. Walk-in donors also are welcome.

MTSU supporter Martha Tolbert, left, watches while American Red Cross phlebotomist Selina Davis helps her finish donating a pint of blood at the annual “Bleed Blue, Beat WKU” drive in the university’s Campus Recreation Center in this October 2018 file photo. MTSU’s spring 2019 blood drive is set from noon to 6 p.m. Monday, April 8, in Room 322 inside the Keathley University Center, located at 1524 Military Memorial Drive in the center of campus. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)

The Heart of Tennessee chapter of the American Red Cross is asking for eligible donors of all types to help rebuild local — and national — blood supplies reduced by winter weather-related blood drive cancellations.

People with type O blood — the “universal donor” — are especially needed. Platelet donors also are being asked to give to help patients fighting cancer.

Each unit of blood can help three different patients.

Blood donated at MTSU can help neighbors in all 17 counties the Heart of Tennessee chapter serves: Rutherford, Bedford, Cannon, Clay, Coffee, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lincoln, Overton, Marshall, Moore, Pickett, Putnam, VanBuren, Warren and White counties.

Blood products also can be shared with the rest of Tennessee’s 95 counties, people in Arkansas and Mississippi, and nationwide if necessary.

MTSU donors can save time on donation day by filling out the Red Cross’s required health questionnaire online, using the Red Cross’s “Rapid Pass”, on April 8 before donating.

The American Red Cross must collect more than 13,000 blood donations each day nationwide to help accident victims, surgery patients, organ transplant patients and those being treated for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease.