National Volunteer Month is a good time to donate blood

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The American Red Cross is asking people to donate blood or platelets for National Volunteer Month.

The Red Cross is offering $15 e-gift cards to anyone who donates between now and the end of the month. Regional communications manager, Don Hawkins, highlights the impact of National Volunteer Month.

“…and this is a big month for us. You know, we celebrated Red Cross Month last month, which kind of highlights everything that we do as an organization. This month we’re really focused on honoring and showing out for our volunteers and that includes every volunteer that works our blood drives as a blood drive ambassador, the folks that greet you when you come in to give blood,” Hawkins said. “And that includes anyone who volunteers their time to come give blood with us and help enable us to make those life-saving impacts in people’s lives.”

Donating blood is a great way to volunteer but if you’re looking to do more with the Red Cross, you can sign-up to be a Blood Donor Ambassador who can be seen at every blood drive.

“These are amazing folks that spend hours and hours of their day, sometimes multiple days of the week, greeting and welcoming folks into blood drives,” Hawkins said. “Making sure that they come in and are greeted with a smile given any information that they needed, navigate, you know, the technology that we use to get folks registered for the blood drives, and set up to make sure that they’re having the best possible experience that they can.”

If you would like to sign up to become an ambassador, you can visit the American Red Cross’s website. You can also schedule an appointment to donate blood through the same website or through the American Red Cross Blood Donor App.