Washington library to host blood drive

WASHINGTON — Library staff say they plan to host their first blood drive, with 15 time slots scheduled Jan. 17.

The event is coordinated with a group called ImpactLife. Chris Ciasto, an account manager for the organization, said it was important time of year for blood donations.

“As we go through the holiday season, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, we see about a 10% deficit in collections,” she said. “People are spending time with family, traveling, celebrating the holidays, but that means we don’t see them out our donor centers … so we’re kind of playing catch up that first couple weeks of January.”

Ciasto said Washington had national recognition for its unusually high blood donor population; about 20% of people, well above the national average of 5-7%. Smaller “pocket drives” like the library’s help to grow the pool even further.

“The blood drive is inspiring people who are not existing donors to come out,” she said. “In a perfect world, we would hope that those donors would then come out and start giving a little bit more regularly.”

Adult Services Library Tammy Valentine helped organize the event. She said the library hoped to repeat and ramp up the drive in future years.

“We started rather small because this is our first,” she said. “We’ll see if we can get all the spots filled, and then maybe next year, have more spots.”

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