News & Events | Seahawks, Puget Sound Blood Center Team Up to Make a More Ethnically Diverse Blood and Marrow Supply

Seahawks, Puget Sound Blood Center Team Up to Make a More Ethnically Diverse Blood and Marrow Supply

Public invited to Seahawks’ third annual blood and marrow drive to honor emergency response professionals and community who volunteered after September 11

AUGUST 26, 2003, SEATTLE — For the third year, the Seattle Seahawks and Puget Sound Blood Center will join forces to score a ‘win’ for the community blood supply during the annual Seahawks rare donor blood and bone marrow drive.

Taking place on Tuesday, September 9, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the West Plaza Club Level in Seahawks Stadium, the drive commemorates the 6,000 local blood donors who came forward after the September 11 tragedy. Since the drive was created, it has helped raise awareness for the need to have more ethnic diversity in the blood and marrow supply and has encouraged more minorities to donate blood or join the national marrow registry. Several Seahawks players and the Sea Gals, the Seahawks cheerleaders, will be in attendance. Free parking is provided at the Northwest lot of the stadium.

Established in May of 2000, the Rare Donor Program’s mission has been to create a more ethnically diverse blood supply and to increase minority representation on the marrow registry. Though there is a need for blood from all racial groups, African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities have historically been underrepresented on the registry and in the blood supply. High profile organizations like the Seahawks have helped the Blood Center achieve its objectives.

“The Seahawks have a long-standing commitment to the community,” said Susan Compton, the Blood Center’s manager of special recruitment. “Naturally, we are excited to collaborate with the them again to make this drive even more successful than last year’s event, which had more than 300 donors registered. Through the help of organizations like the Seahawks, as well as community leaders and organizations, the Blood Center has made significant progress in increasing minority enrollments on the marrow registry and in the local blood supply.”

Compton added that though the focus of this drive is to recruit and register more ethnic minorities, all members of the community are invited to donate blood or join the registry, because there is always a need, regardless of ethnic heritage.

For information about the Rare Donor Program, the National Marrow Donor Program, or to make an appointment for the Seahawks drive, call 1-800-266-4033. To schedule an appointment online, visit www.psbc.org.

About The Puget Sound Blood Center
Internationally recognized for groundbreaking research in transfusion and transplantation medicine, the nonprofit Puget Sound Blood Center is the resource for patients in Western Washington who need blood, tissue and specialized laboratory services. Founded in 1944, the Blood Center has a long and unique tradition of blending community volunteerism, medical science and research to improve patients’ lives. The Blood Center, which serves patients in more than 70 hospitals and clinics in 14 counties with blood services, provides tissue and transplantation support to 185 hospitals across the Northwest.