What you may not know about the Community Blood Center

Its numbers are impressive; in 2011, the CBC took almost 84,900 blood donations, including 1,300 first-time donors, Mark Pompilio, the center’s spokesperson, told me. In that time, a total of 11,200 hours were volunteered to the center. 

While donating blood might be the first way one would think to help, Pompilio said there are many others.  "It's twofold. You can help us by being a volunteer blood donor and donating blood or blood products of course," he said. "That’s our main mission. But there are many people who want to help in different ways where they can’t donate blood, so they want to put time in to support the cause."

He noted some companies are very involved in the process, noting for example LexisNexis, which he called the group’s number one partner in blood drive success. "We have various ways people can help us, it ranges from some of our corporate partners who allow workers to spend time here and help us fold shirts or put together materials that we give to people who register to donate, and then there are people who volunteer at the center on a regular basis to help out at the donor café, sort of hospitality roles," Pompilio said. 

While the center’s Dayton location and four branch offices do employ a sizeable staff, volunteers are its backbone. "People also volunteer to be couriers, and their roles are very important because they are delivering the blood that is collected, and tested here, and then we take blood out to our 24 contract hospitals in a 15-county region. They also do courier work with our partner agency Community Tissue Services, so they’ll be driving a distance to the tissue centers.

Community Blood Center employs some paid people to transport materials, but a number of volunteers do it as well, he said. "The blood drive couriers are really helpful. Sometimes they go as partners with their wives and such, so that’s a big role." Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Volunteer Resources Manager Nikki Winner at nwinner@cbccts.org, Pompilio said. "Being a volunteer is a little more involved these days, so there’s more to know about it," he said.