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A pint of blood can save three lives. This is what motivates people to roll up their sleeves and puncture needles. However, there is another good reason to sign up as a regular blood donor: gift cards.
These days, when you donate blood, you get more than just a T-shirt and some peanut butter cookies. Blood collection organizations usually provide $20 gift cards to Amazon, restaurants and major retailers. You can have blood transfusions every 56 days or six times a year.
Therefore, an average couple can enjoy an additional allowance of $240 and save 36 lives in a year. For a family of four with children over 16 years old who can donate, there are about $500 gift cards each year, saving 72 lives.
Beverly Mattis of Wake Forest, North Carolina, said: “One time we went to Cole and there was a hot-blooded car in the parking lot. They gave each of us a $20 Cole gift card. So my daughter and I did some shopping after going in.”
Exavier Jones recently donated blood on the OneBlood mobile collection bus outside Carrabba’s Italian Grill, a casual restaurant in St. Petersburg.
He said: “I am type O. This is often needed, so I will give as much as I can.” He explained that any blood type can accept type O blood. He received a $10 Carrabba gift card and a $10 electronic gift card, which can be used in various retailers.
How to get the benefits of becoming a regular blood donor
If you are registered as a blood donor with a blood collection organization in your area, you will receive a text or email containing the date of the upcoming blood drive and allowance. There are many blood collection organizations throughout the country. Here are the three biggest registration methods and how to register:
There is no need to give you a certain number of times a year, but it is an encouragement.
OneBlood, which collects blood in the southeast, has partnered with Carrabba’s to give away a $10 gift card every time someone donates between January and April. Those who donate twice will receive an additional $25 gift card and two $10 cards.
“I got 10 dollars. I’m going to eat lasagna tonight,” Bill Howard said after donating at Carrabba’s in St. Petersburg.
He said that the gift card is definitely good, but the main reason he regularly provides it is because he was stabbed during the Vietnam War and needs a lot of blood to survive. He wanted to save others, just like the blood of a stranger.
Pat Michaels, Director of Media Relations at OneBlood, said: “Most of the time, I almost say that our intention is to give gifts to donors.” “It could be Carrabba’s, Publix, Red Lobster. We have established some great partners,” He says.
OneBlood also distributed tickets donated by the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Daytona 500 and Carowinds Amusement Park near Charlotte, North Carolina
In addition to gift cards and tickets, many blood collection organizations also distribute stolen goods, such as beach towels, wool blankets, car sun shades and thermal water bottles.
Vitalant, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the country’s largest non-profit blood service provider, serving 40 states. It can hold more than 30,000 blood drives each year and provides various benefits and incentives for blood donors.
Vitalant is working with the “Arizona Rattlesnake” to encourage high school students there to organize blood sports at the school. The team will host more than 1,000 students from the Blood Drive Committee. The organizers of the two schools with the most donations will share party kits in the Diamondback game.
Vitalant also encourages women and friends to organize blood exercises, just as they might hold parties at home to sell jewelry or clothes. Organizers can invite eight friends to a private party at the collection center, which provides interesting food, where donors can receive gift cards and other stolen goods.
For donors who have a sweet tooth, Vitalant recently promoted the “one pint one pint” offer. Donors who donate a pint of blood will get a free pint of frozen egg coupons from Culver’s.
The American Red Cross recently provided some donors with a $5 Amazon gift card and entered their names to have a chance to win a four-person trip to the Indianapolis 500 in 2022. Winners will receive admission cards, air tickets, hotel accommodation and a $500 gift card. Other Red Cross blood drives enter the donor’s name in the drawing and have a chance to win a $1,000 e-gift card at one of several stores.
More allowances for platelets
Platelets are small cells that can stop bleeding by forming blood clots. Donated platelets are used for cancer patients, transplants, burn patients and trauma patients.
When someone donates platelets, the machine extracts the platelets from the whole blood and returns the remaining blood to the donor. The process takes approximately three hours.
Because it takes longer than donating whole blood, it provides more privileges to people with platelets, which can be donated every 7 days. OneBlood recently launched a two-month program for platelet donors. The program provides gift cards worth $25 for the second donation, $50 for the third donation, and $75 for the fourth donation.
It also promoted the three-month challenge. The gift cards provided were: the second donation was worth 25 dollars, the third donation was worth 50 dollars, the fourth donation was worth 75 dollars, and the fifth donation was worth 100 dollars. The six donations are worth $125. There are a total of $375 gift cards in three months.
Increasing demand during the pandemic
Even under normal circumstances, blood collection organizations have been trying to recruit more donors. According to data from Givingblood.org, only 37% of people in the United States are eligible to donate blood, and less than 10% of them do so at least once a year.
Michaels of OneBlood stated that the numerous effects of COVID-19 have made it more difficult to reach and encourage donors.
He said: “There are good reasons for the lack of hemodynamics.” The blood transfusion equipment in universities, high schools, and office buildings was shut down a few months later.
“We must recover by establishing new partnerships,” Michaels said. He said OneBlood works with county election offices and hundreds of homeowner associations across the country to connect with people who are willing to sign up for blood transfusions.
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