Our View
Published 12:32 pm Thursday, April 10, 2003
By Staff
Let's make next blood drive a good one
Recently both groups that are responsible for providing much-needed blood to our hospital and our armed forces have had a tough time getting people to donate. In newspaper articles and through letters to the editors, these groups have voiced their concerns about the poor donor turnout at blood drives and have said that they may curtail drives in this area.
Local residents live very busy lives and it is very easy to dismiss our responsibility to provide blood. When we consider that the blood we donate could save the life of a friend, neighbor, a infantryman, or even a stranger, it seems selfish that we are not making more of an impact at each of the blood drives that are open to us.
The Northwest Florida Blood Center is an important provider of blood because it supplies D.W. McMillan Hospital. The American Red Cross has a rich tradition of being here when we need them and right now they need us to donate blood.
In our view, both of these groups have earned our respect and deserve our support. When the next blood drive takes place, let's show them that we are willing to roll up our sleeves.