TEXARKANA, Texas - Coming out of a summer of struggle for blood donations, LifeShare Blood Center took donations at the bus parked outside of Texarkana Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
Summer is usually a period when LifeShare donor care specialists have to work extra hard to get donors.
With schools not in session and people out of town traveling, donation tends to drop.
However, they have been down across the board for an unusually long time.
"Our donations usually gain momentum during the school semesters, but for whatever reason, things stayed down through last spring semester," said Maribeth Dunn, LifeShare blood collections manager.
"School has just restarted for the fall/winter season and this is helping. But right now, we aren't keeping pace with the two-day supply we try to have continuously on hand. We are barely keeping up with a one-day supply.
"We especially need O donors, As and Bs, plasma, but we need everything.
"And reading the stories of people benefiting from blood donation, it is clear we are needed, too."
The blood donation buses are out seven days a week and LifeShare Blood Center Texarkana keeps extended hours, even on weekends, to accept appointments and walk-ins. Donors have been coming, though, including people relatively new to Texarkana.
"I just started donating a couple months ago," said Cody Larose, Sparklight/Cable One business representative. "Today is my second donation."
Larose is from New York state and moved to Texarkana two years ago. He has been thinking of donating for a long time and finally took the plunge.
"I see the buses everywhere and I just wanted to help. It's easy to do," he said.
Larose was making a typical donation, which LifeShare calls "two units of concentrated red blood cells."
"He's giving the equivalent of a pint of blood, which is the most we take from a donor," said Rhonda Turman, donor care specialist. "We need more like him."