Vitalant is teaming up with the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office and Earl Warren Showgrounds to host a blood drive at Earl’s Place at the Showgrounds, noon-5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Appointments are requested to help maintain social distancing. To make an appointment, visit www.blood4life.org using the sponsor code 1493, or link to signup to donate. You may also register by phone at 805-542-8500.

Every week, Vitalant must collect about 350 blood donations at blood drives to meet the community’s needs. Additionally, Vitalant currently tests successful donations for COVID-19 antibodies to help find donors who could help COVID-19 patients by donating convalescent plasma. Learn more at www.vitalant.org/antibodytest.

Donors should bring a photo I.D, and eat well and drink plenty of water prior to donating blood. Donors must be 16 years old, but there is no upper age limit. Sixteen-year-olds must bring a signed Vitalant parental consent form found online at vitalant.org. Direct eligibility questions to 877-258-4825.

To ensure everyone’s safety, Vitalant requires all donors to wear a face covering while in its facility; one-way valve masks are prohibited. To be able to give blood, donors must bring their own cloth-based face covering.

Vitaland asks that individuals who are unable to wear a face covering postpone their donation until a mask requirement is no longer needed.

For more information on blood donation, visit https://www.vitalant.org/Donate/Donate-Blood-Overview.aspx.

Vitalant is the nation’s largest independent nonprofit blood service provider, supplying comprehensive transfusion medicine services for nearly 1,000 hospitals and health care partners for patients in need across 40 states

Every day, almost 5,000 blood donations are needed to meet the needs of people throughout the country, and Vitalant’s 800,000 donors supply 1.8 million donations a year.