As an organization of young, active citizens, the Petal Jaycees focus on bolstering leadership skills, personal development and community service.
To help fulfill the organization’s commitment to those endeavors, group members will hold a blood drive – the first for the Petal Jaycees chapter – from noon-4 p.m. April 18 at Walmart, 36 Byrd Parkway in Petal.
“Supplies are super low right now,” Petal Jaycees member Danielle Kelly said. “I work as a nurse, and we just recently had a really big shortage in community hospitals, both here and the regional area.
“We’re seeing a shortage in O-type blood, so we’re trying to work to fulfill that. I know there are several blood drives going on in the community right now for that reason.”
In order to hold the blood drive, the Petal Jaycees is partnering with Vitalant, a nonprofit organization that collects blood from volunteer donors and provides blood, blood products and services across the United States. To register to donate at the Petal event, participants can visitwww.vitalant.organd click on the “donate” link at the top of the page.
“They do recommend doing that, versus contacting one of us, because it kind of helps (avoid) scheduling conflicts,” Kelly said.
All blood donations are tested for COVID-19 antibodies, and donors will be notified of those results as they become available.
Generally speaking, donors must be in good health and feeling well, be at least 16 years old with parental consent in most states, and weigh at least 110 pounds. It is not recommended for anyone to give blood more than once every 56 days.
Kelly said officials are hoping for a good turnout for the drive.
“There’s a minimum number (of donations) that Vitalant will come out for, so we have to make sure that we’ve got those first,” she said. “But we’re hoping to have close to 30, 35.
“I know that this is a new event for Petal, for the Jaycees and things like that, so we don’t want to set our sights too high. But at the same time, we want as many as we can get.”
Because the Petal Jaycees was established as its own chapter just a few months ago, officials are still looking for new members to join the organization.
“We’re trying to get our membership up by the end of the year,” Kelly said. “So if they want to discuss becoming a member, they can always contact us on our Facebook page.”
