Solvita says there is an urgent need for blood. Spokesman Mark Pompilio says the Dayton area blood bank has one to three days' supply on hand.
"We started the day (Tuesday) very low on B negative, a hard blood to collect, because it's not frequent in the population," he says. "And we're very, very low on Type O, which is used so much during emergencies. We're coming out of the holidays still in that holiday hangover."
Pompilio says January is always a tough time to get blood donors.
"They may be of the mind that 'Oh, the holidays are over. Everything's back to normal.' It's actually a very, very slow restart to getting blood drives and collections back to normal."
Pompilio says January is blood donor awareness month across the country, and for many reasons.
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"One of which is that this time of year … you do have seasonal illness and you do have weather concerns that affect blood collections," he says. "But it's also a really good time to make a New Year's resolution to donate for the first time."
Pompilio says they quite literally want "new blood."
Jackie Marshall with Hoxworth Blood Center says their overall stock isn't as bad, but there is still a need for Type O positive and negative and platelets.
"Platelets only have a shelf life of five to seven days, and they are used constantly, specifically heavily used in cancer treatments and pediatric cancer treatments."
Pompilio says they can offer gifts to encourage people to give, but he thinks it's the feeling of doing something good that motivates most donors.
