With winter weather and illnesses keeping people home, blood and platelet donations have yet to recover from the holiday lull.

Kali Eastin, a donor relations specialist with Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, said MVRBC is several hundred units down from where it needs to be.

Fewer people tend to donate during the holiday season, and Eastin said frigid temperatures, hazardous road conditions and bouts of illness in recent weeks have resulted in unexpected cancellations, both for donors and mobile blood drives.

There are several mobile blood drives scheduled for this week, but Eastin said one location cancelled Monday due to cold temperatures. She's optimistic this week's other drives will go on as planned and hopes more people will schedule appointments at the center to donate.

"We know people need (blood). They're counting on us," Eastin said.

To meet that need, the center has been reaching out to its donors trying to get more people in the donor chairs.

"We are reaching out to anyone and everyone who is healthy and well and able to travel to our blood centers," Eastin said. "It’s really about encouraging the masses to come out and roll up their sleeves."

Among the donors the blood center contacted was Lee Boughton. Anemia had left the West Burlington School Board member unable to donate for some time, but with his hemoglobin levels restored, and having received the go-ahead from his doctor, Boughton was happy to help fill the need.

"I donate as often as I can," Boughton said Monday as he squeezed a stress ball to keep his A-positive blood flowing from his arm into a blood bag.

In addition to A-positive blood types, Boughton's blood can go to people with AB-positive blood and, in emergency situations, those who have AB-negative and A-negative blood. 

Though all blood types are needed, negative blood types are especially in demand. Only 15 percent of people have a negative Rhesus (RH) blood type, and only 9 percent are universal donors (O negative blood type).

“Patient need at the hospitals we serve never stops,” said Amanda Hess, MCRBC director of donor relations. “We’re asking donors to help us have a strong recovery from the cold snap to help make sure we can provide a steady blood supply for our local hospitals.”

Burlington's blood center is one of 20 in MVRBCs in three-state region, which serves 86 hospitals in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, including several in southeast Iowa and west central Illinois. Each of the centers is experiencing a drop in donations.

According to American Red Cross, 36,000 red blood cell units are needed every day.

"It's really important we keep our hospitals' shelves stocked," Eastin said.

Helping to stock those shelves Monday was Taoist yoga instructor and musician David Lee Heatherly, who moved to Burlington eight months ago.

"I will have effected nine people's lives," Heatherly said of his donations' impact.

Heatherly has been donating every 56 days since summer. It takes the body four to six weeks to replenish the red blood cells lost after donating whole blood, which is why donation centers enforce wait times between donations.

That time is less for platelet donations. Platelet donors can donate every seven days, including after a whole blood donation. Platelets go to burn victims, heart surgery patients, and organ and bone marrow transplant patients. 

Having donated at the blood center, Heatherly and Boughton will receive a voucher for either a knit beanie or electronic $5 gift card to Starbucks, a promotion available to donors through Jan. 28. The promotion only is available to those who donate at a blood center, not mobile drives.

Whole blood donations take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete. Platelet donations take between 70 minutes to two hours. Donors must bring either a photo I.D. or MVRBC donor card to donate.

All persons age 17 and older who weigh at least 110 pounds and are in general good health are eligible to donate. Sixteen-year-olds also can donate so long as they have a signed parental permission form.

To make an appointment, call (563) 359-5401 or (800) 747-5401.