Ross Gallabrese DONATION — Pat McCombs of Wintersville was one of the donors at Wednesday's Jefferson County Media Day Blood Drive, which was held at St. Florian Event Center.

WINTERSVILLE — A steady flow of blood donors was coming through the doors of the St. Florian Event Center Wednesday afternoon.

That made Phyllis Riccadonna happy.

“Our blood supply is down about 25%, and that’s hard to make up,” she explained. “That’s what we do — we try to schedule bigger blood drives, and, hopefully, this media drive brings in more donors,” she explained.

An account manager for the American Red Cross Blood Services Central Appalachia North Region, Riccadonna was speaking while taking a break from the check-in desk for this year’s Jefferson County Media Day Blood Drive.

“Things are going pretty well,” she said. “Right now, we are in an urgent appeal, which is usual during the summer months, because we don’t have high schools or colleges to donate.”

Scheduled donations fall sharply during the summer months, Red Cross officials have said. Since those make up about 90% of all donations, that can lead to a big reduction in the blood supply, as much as several thousand units.

What makes the summer shortages worse is that they come during a time when accidents and injuries increase. It’s a list that includes sports-related injuries, motor vehicle crashes and ATV accidents.

Among Wednesday’s donors was Pat McCombs. The Wintersville resident was making a Power Red donation.

“It’s to help the young kids, and it helps me out, too,” said McCombs, who added he is originally from Wellsburg. “I have a little bit of a blood disorder, and it helps people out, so I give every three months.”

According to Riccadonna, Power Red donations can help double the number of units collected.

“We can actually remove platelets and plasma and red cells from the body through our very sophisticated machine,” she added. “The machine separates all of that and it returns your plasma and platelets to give us the opportunity to collect two units of red blood cells instead of one. So, we try to schedule the Power Reds at the top of the hour. If we have five hours, that makes 10 units right there. That’s really good.”

Wednesday’s collection goal was 35 units, Riccadonna said, adding she was confident they would easily hit that number. Those units will make a difference. According to the Red Cross, blood is needed by someone in the United States every two seconds. A victim from a car crash can require up to 100 units of blood, the statistics show.

“It’s Power Reds every time,” McCombs said. “It takes out more of my red cells. My blood produces too many red blood cells, so they take the red blood cells and process them in the machine. So, if kids don’t have enough red blood cells, it gives them to them.”

There are many reasons why people shy away from donating blood, one of which is the fear of the process. McCombs said that is nonsense.

“It’s a piece of cake,” he explained. “The people here are really good at putting the needle in. She had it in before I even knew she did it. I told them, wow, that was a great job.”

Riccadonna said that this drive was different because everyone who had made an appointment turned out — and there were several walk-ins.

“Everybody is coming in today,” she said. “We have had no no-shows, and that’s unusual for any blood drive. I’m really, really happy about that today. The weather’s nice and I think people want to get out and donate.

“I actually have had some first-time donors today, which is really, really good at any blood drive,” she added. “And, I see a lot of familiar faces giving blood, too.”

Anyone interested in donating blood can visit redcrossblood.org to see scheduled drives and to make an appointment. Area drives include from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Bluewave Center in Follansbee; from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday at Trinity Medical Center West; from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June 26 at the Glenn Mills Community Center in Richmond; and from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 30 at Crossroads Christian Church in Wintersville.

McCombs explained that there is a simple reason why he continues to donate blood.

“You’re helping people when you give blood,” he said. “You know, that’s one of the reasons I do it.”