A handful of appointments are still open to give blood at MTSU’s spring blood drive on Monday, April 4, and help a neighbor share another beautiful Middle Tennessee spring.

The spring 2022 blood drive, sponsored by the MTSU Red Cross Club student organization for the American Red Cross Heart of Tennessee Chapter, is set from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 4 in Room 324 inside the Keathley University Center, located at 1524 Military Memorial Drive in the center of campus.

A campus parking map is available at http://bit.ly/MTSUParking. Off-campus donors can obtain a one-day permit at https://mtsu.edu/parking/visit.php or park free in the university’s Rutherford Boulevard Lot and ride the Raider Xpress shuttle to the KUC.

This blood drive, like each one at the university, 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, and the Red Cross will test each donation for COVID-19 antibodies.

Donors can make an appointment today for April 4 by visiting here, using the “American Red Cross Blood” app, or texting “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.

Nicole Kogowski, left, a phlebotomy supervisor with the American Red Cross, carefully prepares MTSU junior animation major Abigail Waddle of Munfordville, Ky., for her blood donation at the Student Health, Wellness and Recreation Center in this file photo from the university’s 2021 three-day “True Blue Blood Drive” last November. That event collected 362 units of blood for the community. MTSU’s spring 2022 blood drive is set Monday, April 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 324 inside the Keathley University Center, 1524 Military Memorial Drive. (MTSU file photo by J. Intintoli)

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.

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 https://rdcrss.org/3v4zCJf.

Blood donated at MTSU’s spring 2022 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 April 4 blood drive by completing the required health questionnaire online on donation day, before they give blood, with the Red Cross’s “Rapid Pass.”

At this year’s MTSU “valentine blood drive,” held in early February, donors gave 63 units of blood, potentially helping more than 180 patients in need of blood products. During last fall’s “True Blue Blood Drive” in November, an annual three-day drive that encourages participants to “Bleed Blue” for MTSU, donors gave 362 units of blood, helping as many as 724 people.

The Red Cross says up to three patients can use the components from a single unit of blood.

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

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)