Blood in short supply; give Thursday here

During this COVID-19 crisis, blood is in desperately short supply and a blood drive scheduled at First United Methodist Church Thursday from 1-6 p.m. will go on with enhanced health precautions in place.Potential donors will be screened for fever before entering the church fellowship hall. Local drives traditionally have a lot of walk-ins, particularly at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Separating those people could be an issue so donors are asked to make an appointment in advance at redcross.org/blood or by calling 800.733.2767. If you are asked for it, the local code is ‘lamar’.Walk-ins will be accepted but there may be delays. For more information, call the church office at 770.358.1494.From drive coordinator Charles Glass:If you are healthy it is safe to give blood, even in these times of crisis. The Red Cross is taking extra precautions to protect donors. All collections sets are sterile (as they have always been). Donors and staff have their temperatures checked before entering the drive. Beds will be 6 ft apart. Extra hand sanitizer is available. Arms are scrubbed with antiseptic swabs. Donor areas will be wiped down before and after each donor. And walk-ins will be limited to prevent crowds of people gathering to wait.If you are not eligible to give yourself please help us recruit others to donate. There are 15 appointments still open between 3:30pm and 6pm. We need donors to schedule an appointment instead of relying on walk-ins. Or, if your schedule is flexible, you can give me your contact info and we’ll keep you on a back-up list in case some of the appointments don’t show. If anyone prefers scheduling by phone, or if they want to talk to someone about questions they may have, they can call 1-800-Red Cross.