Mobile blood donor center visits Golden Library monthly

Once, one of Bonfils phlebotomist Mallory McGirk’s donors walked up and down the mobile center and hugged everyone. The womans husband needed a blood transfusion about every week, and if it weren’t for the donors, he wouldn’t have survived as long as he did.

That’s what makes McGirk’s job so rewarding, she said –; hearing the stories from the recipients.

“Donated blood is always needed,” said Bonfils spokesperson Liz Lambert. “There is no synthetic substitute for blood.”

The Bonfils mobile blood drive center comes to the Golden Library parking lot every other month. Between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., an average of 28 people come to give blood.

“It’s not that hard to do,” said donor Mark Sutera of Pleasant View. “It takes just a little bit of time out of your day.”

The mobile centers make their way all over Colorado, from Steamboat Springs to Alamosa.

“If we come to the donors,” said phlebotomist Khyla Burrows, “we see a lot of people are able to take an hour out of their day.”

About 3,000 donations are collected every week from the six Bonfils community donor centers in the state and the mobile centers. More than half comes from the mobile blood drives, Lambert said. The donated blood is distributed to about 100 Colorado hospitals, and once Colorado’s need is met, it can be used to help meet needs elsewhere in the country.

With the approximate 100,000 people moving to Colorado, “we need to keep up,” Lambert said. It’s important to meet the demand and be ready for the unexpected –; such as an emergency situation where a number of people may need a blood transfusion.

Goldenite John Grauerholz believes it’s important that blood is available for transfusions and research purposes.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” he said. “It doesn’t cost anything and it helps.”

Grauerholz has been giving blood for a long time, he said, and on March 2 he was donating in honor of his mother. She would have been 96 years old, he said. A donor herself, she taught him the importance of giving blood.

People do want to be able to help, Lambert said, and blood is something most can spare.

“Anyone who’s considering donating should just give it a try,” Lambert said. “Once they try it, they usually turn into lifetime donors.”

Golden Transcript – Latest Stories