Blood donor clinic falls short of quota

The two-day blood donor clinic that wrapped up here Thursday fell well short of its goal yet again.
“We had a total of 321 donors and that’s 115 short of our quota of 436,” said Marnee Miller of the La Verendrye hospital auxiliary, which helped organize the clinic locally.
“We don’t why. We were open for seven hours [Thursday],” she remarked, noting the recent blood donor clinic in Dryden got 100 more people to give blood than here.
The clinic, held by the Canadian Blood Services at Fort Frances High School, attracted 158 donors on Wednesday and another 163 over two sessions yesterday.
But the low numbers may not be such a surprise given what’s happened for the past couple of years here.
Last year’s fall blood drive saw only 368 donors, falling short of the quota of 425. In 2000, the September blood drive here also fell short of its quota of 370, seeing a two-day total of 338 donors.
It seems people are more willing to give blood in the spring. Some 412 pints of blood were donated this past May—exceeding the two-day quota of 385 by 27.
The May, 2001 blood donor clinic saw 369 donors—just one short of its quota of 370.
In related news, local resident Jim Brow was given a certificate from Canadian Blood Services co-ordinator Harvey Heather for donating blood for his 75th time Wednesday.
The next blood donor clinic will be held here April 30-May 1, 2003.