Livingston Parish Library, LifeShare Blood Center partner for blood drive

The Livingston Parish Library has partnered with LifeShare Blood Center to host a blood drive at the Eighth Annual Livingston Parish Book Festival, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023, at the Main Branch in Livingston.

Established in Shreveport in 1942, LifeShare Blood Center regularly supplies blood components and related services to more than 100 medical facilities and hospitals throughout Louisiana, East Texas, and South Arkansas.

The non-profit community blood bank is a member of America’s Blood Centers and the American Rare Donor Program, is licensed by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, and accredited by AABB.

Blood donations help patients of all ages: accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients, and those battling cancer. In fact, approximately 25 percent of the blood supply is used by patients battling cancer.

According to LifeShare, someone in the U.S. needs blood every two seconds.

A mobile blood bank will be parked in the Main Branch’s front parking lot for the duration of Book Festival, which is free and open to the public. Those who donate will receive a free pair of socks, while supplies last.

Donors are urged to register in advance, and that can be done by clicking on the following link: https://donor.lifeshare.org/donor/schedules.

Walk-ups will be accepted if time slots are available.

This blood drive comes at a critical time: The American Red Cross declared a national blood shortage in September, citing a critically low blood supply level that dropped nearly 25% since early August. 

Donors of all blood types are urgently needed, and there is an emergency need for platelet donors and type O blood donors to make an appointment to give now to ensure patients across the country continue receiving critical medical care.

Your blood donation can help save a life!

For more information, visit www.lifeshare.org.