February 4, 2005

Jetting away the winter blues

While blood donations often are lower in the wintertime because of cold weather and donors being out sick, the MGH Blood Donor Center created a way to entice employees to donate this past December and January and keep the hospital's blood supply at a safe level. The Blood Donor Center teamed up with JetBlue Airways to offer two tickets to any of the airline's destinations as a raffle prize for donors.

At right, Stowell and Christian

On Jan. 31, Christopher Stowell, MD, PhD, medical director for the Blood Donor Center, presented the winner, Kelly Christian, of MGH Psychiatry, with the tickets. Christian is a new employee who gave blood at the Blood Donor Center for the first time during the raffle and plans to use the tickets to visit family in Puerto Rico.

The Blood Donor Center received 1,555 donations during this promotion, which ran Dec. 13, 2004 to Jan. 14.

Donors will get another chance to win a getaway in March when the Blood Donor Center offers all donors a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas.