Bayhealth’s Ballin’ for Blood a Slam Dunk During the Blood Shortage

Bayhealth recently teamed up with Delaware State University (DSU) Athletics and Blood Bank of Delmarva (BBD) to host Ballin’ for Blood—an initiative intended to raise awareness of the importance of giving blood and to help save lives by increasing the blood supply in our local communities, especially during the current blood shortage.

After the March 2 Ballin’ for Blood Drive at DSU on Bayhealth Court, the local community was 33 units of blood richer, including 29 units from whole blood donors and four units from two double red cell donors. According to BBD, a single unit can save up to three lives.

"Bayhealth is the regional trauma center and we rely heavily on blood donations from BBD. We’re also a proud partner of DSU Athletics, so it made sense to combine our efforts and resources to help our community with the current shortage,” said Bayhealth Vice President of Marketing and Communications Kevin Snyder. “There’s a lot of demand for blood these days, which means we need to do everything we can to support them, and that’s what this joint effort between Bayhealth, DSU and BBD was all about.”

Tony Prado, communications specialist at BBD, said that the blood supply is constantly yo-yoing. “It depends on the day. Sometimes it gets a little better and we’re at three, maybe four days, but then you get to this week and it plummets again,” he said.

With that in mind, Bayhealth kicked off Ballin’ for Blood on Saturday, Feb. 26 at the DSU basketball double header against Morgan State University. Bayhealth was on site encouraging registrations for the Ballin’ for Blood Drive that fell just a few days later.

Bayhealth sweetened the deal by rewarding all donors a $10 Chick-fil-A gift card and the chance to win an Apple Watch. Most of the donors were DSU students and staff, but there were also community members, Bayhealth employees and volunteers that supported the blood drive.

At the end of the day, Hornets Sports Properties General Manager Khalil Brown said it best, “Honestly, it’s the bigger picture. If you have the ability to help somebody, why not?”

Those interested in donating blood should visit DelmarvaBlood.org to register at a donor center or a mobile drive. BBD has donor centers in Dover, Newark, Dagsboro, and Salisbury and hosts mobile drives in various locations throughout Delmarva.