With a daughter working this summer at the American Red Cross, blood drives have become a topic of conversation. I have never given blood, but here are some reasons I found to give:

Why give blood? Do you know that less than 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to give blood, and of those donors only 18% give blood.
More interesting facts:
• Every 2 seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood
• More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day
• A single car accident can require as many as 100 units of blood
• Shortages of all blood types usually occur during the summer and winter holiday
• One donation can save as many as 3 lives
• If you began donating blood at the age of 17 and donated every 56 days until you reached 76, you could have donated 48 gallons of blood, potentially saving over 1,000 lives!
• 4.5 million Americans would die each year without life saving blood transfusions
Who needs your blood:
• various surgeries (4-10 pints)
• car accident/gun shot wounds (up to 50 pints)
• liver transplant (up to 100 pints)
• bone marrow transplant (up to 2 pints/day)
• cancer (up to 8 pints/week)