Hilliard businesses hold blood drive competition

HILLIARD, Ohio (WCMH) – A handful of businesses in Hilliard are taking part in a friendly competition to try and help a situation common for this time of year: low blood supply at blood centers.

Versiti Blood Center of Ohio on Monday put out an alert and said its blood supply is "dangerously low." July is typically the center's lowest month when it comes to donations and last week was its lowest of the year, according to Danielle Falconer, area vice president of the Versiti Blood Center of Ohio.

“We require volunteers to donate and I think it's really important for people to remember it can’t be manufactured, that we need community support, in order to help patient care," she said.

Before Monday, the first "Hilliard Battle of the Businesses" was underway. It's a month-long competition between five local businesses and the city to see which can collect the most blood donations. Each is having a drive later this month. Crooked Can Brewing Company, City Labs, Westwood Collective, Equity, Baesman and the city are all participating. Their drive dates can be found by clicking here.

“I think the competition is fun, and then we know it's for the greater good and we’re helping people out on top of that too," Megan Fry with Crooked Can Brewing Company said.

Those who want to donate can go to those drives or make an appointment at Versiti's donation center and tell the team which business they want their donation to count towards.

"It's very similar to our blood battle we have in the fall against the team up north and OSU, so it's just a play on that but with community members and I'm really excited about this battle," Falconer said. "We hope that our loved ones are never impacted by this but we would hope that the blood is there when our loved ones are affected. So if we can have that continued community support, then we’ll never have to worry about that."

Falconer said a lot of their donations come from high school and college-aged community members who are not around as much over the summer. Organizers said they hope to make this an annual event.