New York Blood Center Hosts Life Across America Blood Drive on Friday, July 30th

Life Across America Father-Daughter Team Biking Across U.S. To Promote Blood Donation

NEW YORK, July 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Larry Frederick and Adella Frederick, the father and daughter team that comprises the Life Across America 2010 campaign, are traveling across the U.S. to promote the need for blood donations to help save the lives of patients in need. In recognition of their efforts, New York Blood Center will host a special Life Across America blood drive aboard their mobile donor bus on Friday, July 30, 2010 from 12 Noon to 6:00pm in Union Square on Park Avenue South and 16th Street.  

Larry and Adella will be at the blood drive from 1:00pm to 3:00pm to meet and greet blood donors as well as speak with local print and broadcast reporters about Larry's personal story and his message of encouraging individuals to become blood donors. "When I go to a blood drive, when I walk up to a donor and say, 'Thank you, it was someone just like you who helped to save my life,'…there is an electricity that brings tears to my eyes and tears to their eyes," states Larry.

A husband and father of six children, Larry knows the importance of blood donation. On August 21, 1982, while on duty as an Oakland, CA police officer, he was struck by a drunk driver traveling at 65 miles per hour while he was speaking to a stopped motorist. He needed 110 units of blood and nine major surgeries to repair his extensive injuries. Mandatory retirement followed.

His regiment of physical therapy included the use of a stationary bicycle that, over time, helped him to regain some mobility in his legs. Eventually, the use of a bicycle became a convenient mode of transportation for Larry who has regained the complete use of his legs. Following his surgeries, extensive rehabilitation and physical therapies, Larry earned his B.A. degree and began working in the nonprofit sector that included work with the California Blood Centers. It was at that time he became an advocate for blood awareness and blood donation.

The initial Life Across America campaign was born from Larry's passion to educate individuals in communities across the country about the importance of voluntary blood donation. He began in the mid 1990s with three annual one-day, 75-mile "Miracle Rides" bike trips in Sonoma County, CA, thanking donors and raising funds. In June 1995, his "Ability Across California" tour saw him doing a 1,000 mile bike trek in 10 days to unite communities in becoming blood donors.

In June 1996, Larry began the first "Life Across America" nationwide tour with his son traveling nearly 4,300 miles for the cause. The ride ended in Washington, D.C. in the Oval Office at the White House, with 191 blood drives collecting 75,000 units, resulting in the American Association of Blood Banks (now known as AABB) awarding him The Presidents Award. The Larry Frederick Award was created in 1998 by America's Blood Centers to recognize an individual for his/her contribution to the independent volunteer blood community. Life Across America 2008 saw Larry riding 3,255 miles across the northern states and Canada.

Phase I of Life Across America 2010 will see Larry and Adella riding 3,850 miles from San Francisco, CA to Portsmouth, NH from June 5th to July 27th. Phase II will see the father-daughter team driving back across the country from Providence, RI to Santa Rosa, CA from July 29th to September 14th visiting blood centers in various cities along the way. Larry and Adella will continue to promote their message of the need for residents in communities across the country to become regular donors to help maintain adequate blood supplies for local area hospitals in their communities. To join Larry and Adella along their trip across the U.S., please visit the Life Across America website at www.lifeacrossamerica.com.

Every two seconds, someone needs blood.  Summer marks the busiest time of the year for emergency rooms and trauma centers nationwide.  But with schools closed for the summer and workers away on vacation, there are far fewer people available to donate blood.

Hospital use of blood products remains high during the summer season -- due to surgeries, emergencies and care of cancer patients.  Type O-negative blood, in particular, is used in exchange transfusions for newborn babies and pregnant women, and for premature babies in intensive care units.

People with Rh-negative blood, including A-, B- and O-, comprise just 15% of the population, yet their blood can be safely transfused to the remaining 85%.  People with O-negative blood are known as "universal donors" because their blood can be transfused into anyone.  Type O-negative blood is found in just 6 percent of the population, but is used more often by patients with other blood types, especially in emergency rooms and trauma situations.

You can help our patients in need by donating blood or organizing a blood drive within your community, house of worship, or place of work.  Healthy people can donate one pint of blood every 56 days. New York Blood Center (NYBC) and its regions thank every individual blood donor and the wide variety of organizations that sponsor blood drives throughout the summer months.

To donate blood or for information on how to organize a blood drive,

Please call Toll Free:  1-800-933-2566

Visit:  www.nybloodcenter.org

Any company, community organization, place of worship, or individual may host a blood drive.  NYBC also offers special community service scholarships for students who organize community blood drives during the winter holiday and summer periods.  Blood donors receive free mini-medical exams on site including information about their temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure and hemoglobin level.  Eligible donors include those people at least age 16 (with parental permission or consent), who weigh a minimum of 110 pounds, are in good health and meet all Food & Drug Administration and NY or NJ State Department of Health donor criteria.  People age 76 and over may donate with a doctor's note.

About New York Blood Center:  New York Blood Center (NYBC) is one of the nation's largest non-profit, community-based blood centers. NYBC has been providing blood, transfusion products and services to hospitals serving more than 20 million people in New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut and Pennsylvania.  NYBC is also home to the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute and the National Cord Blood Program at the Howard P. Milstein National Cord Blood Center, the world's largest public cord blood bank.  NYBC provides medical services and programs (Clinical, Transfusion, and Hemophilia Services) through our medical professionals along with consultative services in transfusion medicine. Please visit us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/newyorkbloodcenter.  Follow us on Twitter: @NYBloodCenter.

Contact:  Keith Hudson, [email protected], (212) 570-3327  Office, (646) 373-8605  Mobile

SOURCE New York Blood Center