- Blood banks in Utah face critical shortages, urging donations before Labor Day.
- The American Red Cross and ARUP Blood Services offer incentives for blood donors.
- ARUP needs 75 daily donors; the Red Cross requires 12,500 nationwide daily donors.
SALT LAKE CITY — ARUP Blood Services and the American Red Cross are both out for blood — but in the nicest way.
They want to save lives. And they're also each offering something in exchange for folks who extend a helping arm to replenish a lagging blood supply leading into the long holiday weekend.
The American Red Cross is giving blood donors a "Peanuts" character mystery bag containing one of four limited-edition T-shirt designs, while supplies last. Each showcases one of the "Peanuts" characters. The mystery is which one is in which bag. And some of the bags include a golden ticket that can be redeemed for all four of the character T-shirts. The deal's good from Aug. 29 to Sept. 21 or while supplies last.
ARUP has been offering a monthly incentive this summer to donate blood: the chance to win a $1,500 Disney gift card that's good anywhere Disney-related, including the restaurants or even a cruise. Two people have already won such a gift card, and the final card will go to someone who donates blood by the end of Labor Day weekend.
For those who don't get the big card, each will still get a gift card to Amazon, Megaplex or Texas Roadhouse, among others, ARUP spokesperson Deb Jordan said.
A serious need that doesn't leave
This time of year is tricky for blood banks, and demand sometimes outpaces supply. People are taking that last vacation of summer leading up to Labor Day. Families are adjusting perhaps already-busy schedules to adapt to the school year and changes in work routines. And nationwide, severe weather and hurricanes put pressure on the blood supply, as Keith Paul, a spokesman for the American Red Cross pointed out, adding that besides increasing needs, weather events can disrupt blood drives.
Between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, weather events canceled about 1,500 blood drives nationwide for the American Red Cross. And Jordan told Deseret News that during summer months, there are no school blood drives, which typically help bolster the blood supply a lot.
ARUP, which provides all the blood used by University of Utah Health and the Huntsman Cancer Hospital and center, hopes those who have never given blood before and others who haven't given recently will make an appointment to donate.
Jordan said that each year ARUP provides roughly 25,000 blood products to those two hospital systems. "We need about 75 donors a day to keep up," she said.
Benjamin Donner, executive director of the American Red Cross Central and Southern Utah Chapter, said his organization supplies the rest of the hospitals in Utah with blood, and as part of the American Red Cross network, the blood is sometimes shipped elsewhere to save lives.
"Not having enough blood is a situation nobody wants to be in," he said, noting that ARUP and the American Red Cross sometimes end up helping each other out, as well.
Running out is unusual, but it can happen, and hospitals then have to decide whether to postpone surgeries or which critical patients need blood the most.
Nationwide, Donner said the American Red Cross needs roughly 12,500 blood donors a day to meet the need, as well as 3,000 platelet donations a day. Sometimes donations can be broken into components to help more than one person. And other times, it takes more than one blood donation to save a single life. He once needed blood and would have died without donations from four people, he said.
When you donate, per Donner, "You are literally giving a piece of yourself to save the life of somebody else. It's very much a humanitarian work that's happening every day."
All about blood
Whole blood donations last 42 days, and donors can donate every 56 days. Platelet donations only last five days, but donors can give every two weeks.
The most needed whole blood, which is fortunately also the largest group of people at 38% of the population in the U.S., is O-positive blood, which can be used as a transfusion for anyone with a positive blood type. O-negative is blood gold, because that's the universal donor and all blood types can take O-negative blood. But there are fewer O-negative donors than O-positive. About 7% of people are universal donors.
Other blood types can be given to people with the same blood type, so A-positive blood can be given to A-positive recipients.
The exception is AB-positive blood, which fewer than 4% of people have. It's the universal recipient for whole blood, so someone who's AB-positive can also take the A-positive blood — and any other type, too. AB-positive and AB-negative are universal donors for plasma and platelets
AB-negative is the rarest blood type, at fewer than 1% of the U.S. population. An AB-negative recipient can get blood from anyone else who has a negative blood type
How to give blood
ARUP Blood Services is open seven days a week and has two donor centers. 100% of the blood and platelets that are collected through ARUP stays in Utah.
To schedule an appointment, visit UtahBlood.org or call 801-584-5272. Appointments are encouraged.
To donate through the American Red Cross, appointments can be made by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting redcross.org/GiveBlood or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
