Complimentary Nets Tickets for Volunteer Blood Donors at Community Blood Services

February 26 & 27, 2012

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Anyone who donates blood, platelets or plasma on Sunday or Monday, Feb. 26 or 27, at Community Blood Services� Paramus or Lincoln Park donor centers will receive two complimentary tickets to a NJ Nets basketball game.

"Giving our volunteer blood donors Nets tickets is our way of saying thank you to them for taking time out of their busy days to donate and give the gift of life," said Karen Ferriday, community affairs director. The tickets are for a basketball game in April at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, she said, noting the team is expected to relocate to Brooklyn, NY this spring.

Donors can donate on Sunday at the Paramus center, 970 Linwood Avenue West, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. or on Monday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Or they can donate at the Lincoln Park center, 63 Beaverbrook Road, Suite 304, on Monday from 12 noon to 7:30 p.m.

Ferriday said Community Blood Services needs about 250 volunteer blood donations a day to meet the needs of all patients in the hospitals it serves. She said there has been a shortage of Type O negative donors whose blood can be transfused to a person of any blood type in an emergency, along with an ongoing need for male A and AB plasma donations to treat burn and trauma victims.

Community Blood Services is a not-for-profit organization that provides blood and blood products to more than 20 hospitals in New Jersey and New York.

Whole blood donors must be healthy, 17-75 years old (16 with parental permission) and weigh at least 110 pounds. Donors also receive complimentary non-fasting cholesterol and glucose screenings at the time of their donations.