SARASOTA – “I am extremely grateful to everybody who donates blood,” said Carissa Myers.
The 8th annual Red Hot Event hosted at the Van Wezel not only raised money for the Suncoast Blood Bank but also raised awareness of how important it is to donate blood.
“Donating blood is safe, it’s simple and it saves lives,” said Jayne Giroux.
Giroux ,Director of Community Development with the Suncoast Blood Bank, says this is their biggest fundraiser of the year. The event honors those whose lives have been saved through blood donations.
“Blood is literally giving life. There’s no substitute for blood you can’t manufacture it,” said Giroux. “I urge you because you never know when you or somebody you love is going to need the precious gift.”
Myers, the Honorary Chair for the event, said after beating breast cancer blood donations helped saved her life.
“When I had my mastectomy I had some complications and ended up back in emergency surgery overnight and lost a lot of blood and had to have multiple transfusions over two days,” said Myers.
Myers said she didn’t know how important blood donations are until she needed it. Her husband has been a blood donor for more than 10 years and hopes her story inspires other to donate blood.
“I never realized how few people actually donate blood,” she said. “Only 3% of the population donates blood.”
The big announcement at the end of the night was presented by Giroux. The Suncoast Blood Bank will be moving into a 25,000 square foot facility to move all their operations under one roof.
“It’s going to allow us to be more efficient, more practical,” said Giroux.