La Quinta wins Nine Cities Blood Drive Challenge for 1st time in city history
The City of La Quinta has been named the winner of the 2019 LifeStream Blood Bank’s Nine Cities Blood Drive Challenge, the first time the city has won.
This year marked the seventh annual Nine Cities Blood Drive Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to create a friendly competition among the valley’s cities, their workforce, and residents where the motivation to donate blood becomes an event with strong participation and goodwill.
The month-long challenge helps restock the blood bank amid lower donor participation in the summer months. LifeStream is the exclusive provider of blood products and services to all Coachella Valley hospitals.
LifeStream credited the strong drive held by Keller Williams Realty on Washington Street on July 31, the final day of the month-long initiative as a major catalyst for La Quinta’s victory. The final drive by Keller Williams Realty helped La Quinta get past Rancho Mirage and Palm Springs to claim the trophy with 115 units of blood collected during the month.
“Congratulations to the City of La Quinta for winning the ‘challenge’ for the first time,” said Dr. Rick Axelrod, LifeStream Blood Bank’s president/CEO and medical director. “Mayor Linda Evans, city staff and the La Quinta business community have been strong supporters of the blood drive challenge from its origins in 2013. They worked hard to encourage community members to give the gift of life at mobile drives and our donor center. It paid off in an exciting, last-day-of-July victory!”
Rancho Mirage also had a strong final day drive at Eisenhower Medical Center that helped the city eek past Palm Springs for the runner-up spot, 107 units to 105.
La Quinta and Rancho Mirage tied for the most productive individual blood drives, while Indian Wells earned bragging rights with the highest percentage of population participation.
In total, 724 units were collected during the Nine Cities Challenge, a decrease from 2018 and 2017 figures.
“It’s true that overall Nine Cities’ collection figures decreased from the past two years, though they did exceed 2014, 2015 and 2016,” said Axelrod. “Several months ago, to help ensure the comfort of our donors from the summer heat, we made the decision to not hold ‘outside’ blood drives on our buses during the Nine Cities Challenge. This resulted in fewer drives being held than past years’, so, while we’d hoped to match previous figures, we weren’t surprised when they came in a bit lower.
Axelrod continued, “We are grateful and appreciative for all who participated, because, after all, it is local patients and their loved ones who are real winners of the challenge. And they need our continued support, so we urge Valley residents to keep those patients in mind and commit to giving blood at least three times a year.”
Blood donations are always needed, click here to find your nearest donation center or to schedule an appointment!
