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NewsChannel 5 teams up with Blood Assurance for Community Blood Drive

blood assurance donor
Posted at 5:20 PM, Feb 28, 2022
and last updated 2022-02-28 19:17:52-05

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — NewsChannel 5 is partnering with Blood Assurance for a Community Blood Drive on Wednesday.

You can donate at any of the six locations around Middle Tennessee: Clarksville, Columbia, Cookeville, Franklin, Hermitage, and Tullahoma. However, NewsChannel 5 will be at the Hermitage location throughout the day.

"If you're out there and you haven't tried to donate or maybe last time you tried you were turned away because of whatever reason, I would want to encourage them to retry, because the questions, criteria, has really evolved in the last few years," said Devon Wallace, an operations manager at Blood Assurance. "We may be able to have them donate now whereas they maybe couldn't several years ago."

Blood Assurance, which is based in Chattanooga, is one of the many options in the country for blood donation.

"We have our own lab, we have our own buses, we have our own distribution clerk, so we handle every aspect of the entire process whereas some of our competitors they don't," Wallace said.

Like its competitors, Blood Assurance's biggest challenge these days is keeping shelves stocked.

"If people just donate twice a year then we wouldn't have this problem. Our shelves wouldn't be lean," Wallace said.

Most often, blood donated at a specific Blood Assurance location stays in that community.