Blood donors needed

Blood banks across the country are seeing fewer donations as blood drives are forced to cancel to slow the spread of COVID-19. Chase the Music traditionally hosts the annual Lyons Easter Blood Drive. This year, we are forced to cancel the drive, but the need for blood donations is as great as ever. Accident victims, surgeries, research, transfusions, cancer treatments, and so on all require blood. The need is continuous, as blood has a limited shelf-life: 42 days for whole blood, and only five days for platelets. (Blood that has expired or is not utilized for human patients doesn’t go to waste. It can still be used in research labs.)

Lyons area donors have always delivered more than 120% of the goal set by Vitalant (formerly Bonfils, the largest blood bank in the region) for donations.

In this difficult time, we encourage you to give. Each donation has the potential to save up to three lives. Giving blood is considered essential, and is a permissible exemption to the stay-at-home rules. Donation centers are taking extra precautions for donors and staff.

You can make a reservation to give at https://donors.vitalant.org. Vitalant has donation centers in Boulder, Denver metro and Cheyenne.

Chase the Music is a Lyons based non-profit. Chase the Music gives children battling critical conditions hope, strength, love, and joy through the power of music. https://chasethemusic.org.