Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
A San Diego Blood Bank bus will set up shop outside the Fallbrook Community Center June 22. Blood bank staff is hoping for a large turnout of donors and asks people to call (619) 780-1531 to schedule an appointment.
Jasmine Massage, located at 412 S. Main Ave., is closed the morning of June 6 after law enforcement officials conducted a sting operation June 2 which resulted in a woman being arrested on suspicion of prostitution. Lucette Moramarco photo
San Diego Blood Bank (SDBB) wants you – or more specifically, your blood.
Donations from Fallbrook residents has dropped substantially the past two years, prompting SDBB staff to pay a visit to the Friendly Village to sound the alarm about the need for more donors.
Jennifer Bradley and Ginny Thomas, account marketing managers for SDBB, attended the Fallbrook Revitalization Committee meeting June 1 in an attempt to get help in revitalizing blood donations in Fallbrook.
“We've been coming to Fallbrook for the last 14 years, hosting blood drives at the Fallbrook Community Center,” said Bradley. “The community center blood drive was sponsored by the women's auxiliary (the Fallbrook Hospital Auxiliary). When the hospital closed, that group dissolved. Since then the blood drive has taken a dramatic drop."
Fallbrook Hospital closed in December 2014 and the Fallbrook Hospital Auxiliary disbanded in mid-2015.
SDBB conducts four blood drives a year at the community center and, according to blood bank statistics, from 2006-2014 those drives brought in an average of 41.6 pints per drive and an average of 166.5 pints per year.
A total of seven drives were held at community center in 2015-2016 (only three drives were held in 2016, when two scheduled drives were cancelled) and they brought in an average of 23.7 pints per drive and an average of 83 pints per year.
The SDBB’s first drive at the community center this year was held April 20 and collected 20 pints. SDBB will conduct its next drive at the community center June 22 from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. and people are encouraged to make an appointment by calling Thomas at (619) 780-1531.
“We need a huge turnout,” said Bradley, who noted that the June 22 drive will take place on a SDBB bus due to the low turnout April 20, when a room was utilized in the community center.
“You typically use a room when you're doing over 30 or 40 (donations) because you want it to be that social event,” said Thomas. “Right now we're not doing well and it (the bus) is its own big billboard. You can't not know it's there.”
Thomas praised the “beautiful” Fallbrook Community Center and thanked it for giving SDBB a spacious room to use for free. She added she would love to see the drives held in the room on a regular basis – as they were for so many years – but that won’t happen if donor appointments continue to be on the low side.
“It really seemed to be such a grass roots type of thing when you had the auxiliary running it because the ladies would bake pies at certain times of the year and people would come,” said Bradley. “It really had become this amazing community thing. So we're just kind of looking around at how can we recreate that and make that happen once again. We would love to hear if anyone has any thoughts or ideas.”
If business at the community center drives doesn’t pick up, SDBB may have to drop the four events from its yearly schedule, something Thomas doesn’t want to happen.
“We would love to strengthen this partnership with Fallbrook, keep it going and empower champions, the people who come out for no other reason than to give something that they have to save a life,” said Bradley, adding that “three lives can be touched by one pint of blood.”
SDBB, utilizing one of its buses, conducts a blood drive once a month in Fallbrook in the parking lot at Albertsons (1133 S. Mission Rd.). The drives at Albertsons are usually held the last Monday of the month.
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