Each week I try to share information you might not know about us. This time, I’m going to share things I never knew about a very important asset in our community – Hoxworth Blood Center. Hoxworth is helping us with our annual holiday toy drive for kids in foster care, Kindness for Kids, by putting donation bins in their seven blood donation centers and encouraging their donors to bring a toy. This new partnership prompted me to learn a bit more about this institution that has been saving lives in Cincinnati for almost 85 years.
We come together as caregivers of children. While JFS keeps kids safe, Hoxworth provides safe, life-saving blood products to kids. In fact, more than two thirds of Hoxworth’s platelet collections go to patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Pediatric patients across the country use an average of 1,800 units of blood every day.
So donating blood or platelets at Hoxworth is a true act of caring that very likely could benefit a local child.
We’re asking for donated toys to help provide almost 1,900 kids in foster care with holiday gifts. But I wanted to also remind that there’s something else we can donate that kids really need. Here’s how to get started. Hoxworth needs 400 blood donors and 50 platelet donors each day to meet the demand of local hospitals. One whole blood donation can save up to 3 lives.
Thanks to Hoxworth for helping us and for all it does for our community every day.
