Busy summer for the Cape Fear Red Cross

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The summer season is busy for the American Red Cross of the Cape Fear. The agency is helping with disasters across the country, and combatting a shortage of blood donors.

The American Red Cross is known for collecting blood for those who need it after car accidents or disasters. but the agency says they’re experiencing a shortage of the gift of life due to less donation drives, and many people traveling this time of year.

Last month, the Red Cross collected around 12% fewer blood donations nationwide. That’s the largest monthly blood donation shortfall in recent years.

Two donors shared that they were thankful for the opportunity to help others.

“It’s something that I think of a way for me to give back. It’s easy it’s quick, it’s a selfish thing because it makes me feel good when I’m done, but just helping in any way that I can,” said Cheryl Emmerich, donor.

“I’ve been doing this about 25 years of my life and it’s just the little bit I can do to help the community,” Mark Mormando, donor.

With disasters happening across the country, like wildfires in the west, floods, and a train derailment, the local red cross chapter is on standby in case they need to lend a helping hand.

“We have great surge capability to send our volunteers anywhere where they are needed. We’ve got some folks that are deploying today, going up to West Virginia to help with the flooding event up there. You know, we’ve, –we’ll go to the Midwest when there are for tornados and those types of things,” said James Jarvis, American Red Cross Executive Director.

The American Red Cross is also gearing up for what is expected to be an above-average hurricane season, and is still in need of volunteers to assist with response.

“A big focus we have right now is trying to get more shelter volunteers in the door, ultimately that’s our first priority. You know if a community is faced with a tropical system and we have to evacuate, a lot of times people aren’t able to evacuate and they do rely on the shelters,” said Jarvis.

The American Red Cross has an upcoming event July 21-24 , partnered with Discovery are partnering for Shark Week, inviting people to dive in to help save lives by giving blood or platelets.