Ohio Valley rolls up sleeves during Media Blood Drive

WINTERSVILLE -- The American Red Cross held its Missing Types Media Blood Drive Wednesday at St. Florian Event Center.

Account manager Phyllis Riccadonna said based off of pre-registrations alone, the area was half way to making its goal of 44 units.

"It's been pretty good," she said. "We have had a lot of walk-ins and a steady flow of donors."

The campaign asks that people remove the letters A, B and O from all social media or advertising to make people aware of how valuable those letters are -- especially when talking about blood types.

According to the Red Cross, only 3 percent of eligible Americans give blood, and that is "simply not enough." Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood.

The Red Cross is the single largest provider of blood products in the country and supplied at least 40 percent of the blood needed globally.

Riccadonna was being assisted at the drive by students from the Ohio Phlebotomy Training Center in Steubenville.

"The students are helping us out today and are all going to donate blood as well," she said.

All of the donors were given a T-shirt as a thank-you for giving.

The Red Cross said despite popular belief, you do not need to know your blood type in order to donate blood.

The Herald-Star teamed with WTRF-TV, WCDK-FM and WTOV-TV to sponsor media day. Also helping with the event were Bath Fitter, which provided T-shirts, and the Carriage Inn of Steubenville, which provided pizza for those who donated.