Give someone another spring! Donate blood April 5 at MTSU-sponsored drive

MTSU’s spring 2021 blood drive is set from noon to 6 p.m. Monday, April 5, at the North Boulevard Church of Christ, located a quarter-mile north of campus at 1112 N. Rutherford Blvd. 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 their lifesaving help.

There’s still time to hop into an appointment at MTSU’s spring blood drive on Monday, April 5, and help a neighbor share another beautiful Middle Tennessee spring by donating blood.

The spring 2021 blood drive, sponsored by the MTSU Red Cross Club student organization for the American Red Cross Heart of Tennessee Chapter, is set from noon to 6 p.m. April 5 at North Boulevard Church of Christ. It’s located a quarter-mile north of campus at 1112 N. Rutherford Blvd.

Click on the poster to see a larger image.

The church is opening its gymnasium for an MTSU community blood drive for the fourth time since last September because of the campus’s pandemic-related capacity restrictions.

North Boulevard’s generosity has so far helped MTSU welcome 421 donors to three community blood drives — and potentially save 1,263 neighbors’ lives as a result.

Each unit of donated blood can help three different patients.

This blood drive, like the others, is open to MTSU friends, neighbors, students, faculty, staff and alumni across Middle Tennessee. Each donor will receive a T-shirt as thanks for their lifesaving help, and the Red Cross will test each donation for COVID-19 antibodies.

Donors ages 16 to 24 also will receive a $10 e-gift card and will be eligible to win one of five $1,000 e-gift cards and a trip for four to the 2022 Indy 500.

Donors can make an appointment for April 5 here, use the new “American Red Cross Blood” app, or text “BLOODAPP” to 90999. Walk-in donors also are welcome.

The Red Cross requires all donors to wear masks while giving blood. Red Cross staffers also wear masks to protect donors, volunteers, co-workers and guests.

The Heart of Tennessee Chapter is asking for eligible donors of all types to help rebuild local — and national — blood supplies reduced by coronavirus- and weather-related blood drive cancellations.

They’re specifically asking people with type O blood — the “universal donor” — to give. The organization also urgently needs platelets to help patients with cancer, chronic conditions and traumatic injuries.

American Red Cross T-shirts reading “All You Need is Blood” await donors at MTSU’s 2020 “Bleed Blue” blood drive last September in this file photo at the neighboring North Boulevard Church of Christ gymnasium. The MTSU Red Cross Club’s spring 2021 blood drive is set Monday, April 5, at the same site. (MTSU file photo by Andy Heidt)

Donors who’ve recovered from the coronavirus also can help by providing their antibody-laden plasma to treat patients currently battling the virus.

Blood donors who’ve received their COVID-19 vaccines are eligible to donate without a delay, in most cases. They’ll need to tell Red Cross personnel which vaccine they received to be sure; more information is available at http://rdcrss.org/3v4zCJf.

Blood donated at MTSU’s spring blood drive can help neighbors in the area served by the Red Cross’s Murfreesboro-based Heart of Tennessee Chapter as well as those across Tennessee, people in Arkansas and Mississippi, and nationwide when necessary.

Donors can save time at the MTSU blood drive by completing the required health questionnaire online April 5, before they give blood, with the Red Cross’s “Rapid Pass.”

For more information about donating blood and blood products for the American Red Cross, visit http://redcrossblood.org anytime.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)

Click on the image to make an appointment between noon and 6 p.m. Monday, April 5, for MTSU’s spring 2021 blood drive at North Boulevard Church of Christ, 1112 N. Rutherford Blvd.