By HEATHER WALTERS
The Colleton County Sheriff’s Office is partnering with The Blood Connection to host a community-wide blood drive to help alleviate an ongoing blood shortage in the state.
The event is being held at the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office headquarters on Maple T. Willis Drive in Walterboro on Thursday, June 17, from 9 am to 2 pm.
“There is an extreme shortage of blood in this area,” said Shalane Lowes, spokeswoman for the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office is partnering with The Blood Connection for this event. The Blood Connection is a non-profit organization that collects donated blood and then disperses it to local agencies. It serves communities in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, with blood donation sites and staff centers found in several major cities in each of these states. For example, The Blood Connection’s site in Charleston supplies blood to Colleton Fire-Rescue ambulances in Colleton County.
They also supply blood to Colleton Medical Center and CareFlight, the medical helicopter frequently used in Colleton County to transport critically injured patients to area hospitals.
“The blood we receive stays in our area; it’s not distributed amongst other places,” said Lowes. “So, someone could be saving their family member or friends live through their donation.”
According to officials at both The Blood Connection and the American Red Cross, there is a “critically low” blood shortage happening in South Carolina.
This is mostly due to “months of historically low blood donations,” which have been spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, as stated by officials with The Blood Connection.
According to information provided by The Blood Connections, hospitals are consuming twice as much blood as what is being donated.
For those who want to donate blood in Colleton County, residents can attend the upcoming June mobile blood drive event at the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office.
There are also more upcoming events for blood donations in Colleton County. In each of these events, mobile blood drive busses will be set up in the Food Lion parking lot in Walterboro.
Upcoming Blood Drives in Colleton County
Friday, August 13, Back To School Blood Drive, 2 pm - 7 pm
Friday, October 15, Fall into the Season of Giving, 1 pm - 6 pm
Tuesday, December 14, The Gift that Keeps on Giving, noon - 5 pm
