Local community members saved as many as 315 lives by giving blood during Baldwin EMC’s emergency blood drive on February 1 in Summerdale. The staff from LifeSouth Community Blood Center collected a total of 105 pints of blood, each of which can benefit as many as three people.

The co-op held the emergency blood drive in response to discovering LifeSouth was facing a critical shortage of blood, which serves to benefit local hospitals.

“I just want to thank Baldwin EMC so much for allowing us to have the emergency blood drive on Thursday,” said Jennifer Rulon, LifeSouth Regional Manager I. “Thanks to Baldwin EMC and our awesome community, we were able to collect a total of 105 donations! That’s amazing!”

“Our community never ceases to amaze us,” said Baldwin EMC Vice President of Corporate Services and Public Relations, Mark Ingram. “If we tell them a need and ask for help, they always deliver and always go above and beyond our expectations.”

The co-op traditionally hosts two blood drives each year, one in the spring and one in the fall. While there is always a large number of donors, the response to the emergency drive was more than anticipated. “It was just a steady flow of people throughout the entire day coming to donate, and we even had a number of first-time donors come out to give,” Ingram said. “Thank you so much to the men and women who took time out of their day to donate and ultimately save lives!”