Canadian Blood Services is trying to increase its blood inventory before July 1st.

Steve Raizen is Territory Manager. He says their inventory levels are lower than normal coming out of winter and spring. And with summer generally being a challenging time to collect donations, Raizen says the push is on over the next few weeks.

According to Raizen, summer is leaner for donations because routines are disrupted for regular donors and many people are out of town on holidays. But the demand never stops. In fact, Raizen says there is increased demand because of additional vehicles on the road, resulting in more collisions. On top of that, people with blood disorders rely on blood transfusions every day, including during the summer.

Last month, Canadian Blood Services set a goal of collecting 50,000 donations of blood nationwide by July 1st. Raizen says there is enough blood on their shelves to meet patient needs today, but the goal is to increase that supply before the summer months.

The next blood donor clinic in Steinbach will be held Monday, June 19th from 2 pm to 7 pm at Steinbach Evangelical Mennonite Church at 422 Main Street. Following that, the next clinic is Monday, July 3rd at Steinbach Mennonite Church at 345 Loewen Boulevard.

Raizen says their goal is to collect 96 donations each clinic in Steinbach. He notes they are doing well to meet that goal. But he says to achieve this, they need between 150 and 160 appointments. Raizen notes not everyone can always make their appointment, partially due to health reasons. Because of that, they try to make nearly twice as many appointments as the number of donors they need. He adds an average clinic in Steinbach will see between 110 and 130 donors.

According to Raizen, around 1,000 donations are needed each week in our province to meet hospital demand.

Meanwhile, National Blood Donor Week is June 11 to 17. World Blood Donor Day is June 14.

Raizen says only about 4 percent of Canadians are contributing to the blood supply. Canadian Blood Services is encouraging donors to get their friends and family involved.