Other blood donating options
Wayan brought the current blood shortage situation to our attention earlier and in following the links I observed that maybe the situation could be partly explained by the Red Cross’ failue to update their blood drive information past mid-July. Inova Blood Donor Services doesn’t seem to have that problem, however – their locations are up-to-date and listed here and their fixed locations and hours are here.
If you’re among the large number of us who work in the Reston/Herndon area you’re sure to find hours you can make. Although blood donation apparently is required by federal law to have whack-o hours the Inova folk have slots as early as 6am some days and as late as 8pm on other.
One other observation – aren’t there any donation locations in Arlington? Neither Inova or the Red Cross list any.
Arlington County Chapter
4333 Arlington Boulevard
3rd Wednesday of every month
Blood
8:00am to 2:00pm
They should also do something about their outdated regulations that someone who has lived abroad in England (and other major European cities) for a period of time totaling six months cannot give blood. I donated blood every 54 days from 1996 through the summer of 1998, when the above (loosely quoted federal regulation) came into effect…I DO NOT HAVE MAD COW DISEASE.