Donating blood is one way residents can give back to their community.

According to Michelle Emmett of the DeKalb County Red Cross, 2727 Sycamore Road Unit 2A, less than one percent of DeKalb County residents donate blood and only 8 percent donate nationwide.

That’s bad news for Jill Bernard, director of mobile recruitment at the Heartland Blood Center, 1200 North Highland Ave. in Aurora, which is the sole supplier of blood to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, 1 Kish Hospital Drive.

“We have adequate levels of blood except for Type O, but we need 600 donors a day to keep these levels up for all 33 hospitals we supply,” Bernard said. “That’s 172,000 donors a year.”

Despite these staggering numbers, Heartland should be able to maintain its stock of blood with the several blood drives happening on campus and at various high schools, which make up 25 percent of the blood stock. Emmett says they’re improving with every blood drive and she hopes people will be able to see for themselves that it’s OK to give blood.

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