BALTIMORE — The American Red Cross says it is experiencing one of the worst blood shortages in more than a decade and one reason for the short supply is a decline in blood drives due to the pandemic and COVID-19.
But the virus is not stopping one local woman from organizing blood drives and saving lives.
By day, Brina Furman is an events producer. When all of her events were cancelled at the start of the pandemic in 2020, she turned her attention to giving back.
She said she reached out to Nick Johnson, who owns Su Casa in Fell's Point and Ellicott City, and asked if she could use his retail space to host a blood drive.
"I got in touch with the Red Cross and said I want to host a blood drive, I think we can bring a lot of people out. They said we’ll give you 30 appointments. I said I’m going to need more."
"We put the word out through Facebook neighborhood pages and we filled it up within 2 hours."
Since then, Furman has organized more than a dozen blood drives in stores, hotels, breweries and synagogues.
"One donation can save up to three lives so the impact we’ve been able to make through these little community drives is really very powerful and cool," she said.
The next blood drive is February 28 and March 1 at the Admiral Fell Inn on South Broadway in Fell's Point. Appointments are required. Click here for information about how to sign up.
Furman said There Goes My Hero Foundation will also be at the blood drive to sign people up for the bone marrow registry.
