Senoia Area Blood Drive set for Monday, Nov. 7

Pictured above is Dedee Ressl who was a donor at the previous blood drive held for the Senoia area in August.

From Special Reports

An urgent blood drive is scheduled for Monday, November 7 at the Senoia United Methodist Church. 

The event will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. and is co-sponsored by the local church and the Optimist Club of Senoia. If you are unable to give, you are encouraged to notify others who may be able to donate. One blood donation can help save up to three lives.

Some of our long-time donors have missed our delicious grilled cheese sandwiches that were eliminated due to concerns regarding COVID-19. As situations have improved and other gatherings are also attempting to return to some degree of normalcy, our upcoming blood drive is expected to offer our “famous” sandwiches once more!

The American Red Cross is also making some changes that should bring in more donors. The organization has recently shared an eligibility change that will result in allowing some people to give blood who previously could not do so. In alignment with new FDA guidelines, the American Red Cross has updated its donor eligibility for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) related to mad cow disease.

• The Red Cross will eliminate the deferral of donors who spent time in the UK, Ireland or France from 1980 to 2001, who were previously considered to have geographic risk of possible exposure to vCJD. 
• The Red Cross will also eliminate the deferral for individuals who received a blood transfusion from certain European countries from 1980 to present.

Implementation of this change and reinstatement of previously deferred donors began October 3. This deferral is more complex to remove than others and is estimated to take some time to complete.

As the Red Cross continues to work through this process and contact previously deferred donors, individuals who have questions about their donor record can contact the Red Cross Donor and Client Support Center at 1-866-236-3276.

You are encouraged to make an appointment for the upcoming blood drive either by signing up online (http://www.redcrossblood.org/give) or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). NOTE: If the appointment schedule is full, walk-ins may not be able to donate.

The Senoia United Methodist Church is in the historic district of Senoia and is located at 229 Bridge Street.