‘Blood takes a community.’ Local Red Cross services merge into new Kennewick spot
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- Red Cross reopened a Kennewick hub consolidating blood services and disaster operations.
- Blood drives and community donors remain central to regional emergency care.
- Survivor Jamie Ohl Turner recounted a 2013 crash and credited donors for saving her.
It was a full-circle moment for Jamie Ohl Turner at the reopening of the Kennewick Red Cross building Thursday.
The lifelong Tri-Cities resident was 22 when she lost control driving on Highway 26 in May 2013. She was on her way back to college at Washington State University in Pullman.
Her car rolled seven times down an embankment. Surrounded by wheat fields, she nearly bled to death.
She survived, but spent more than a month hospitalized in Spokane.
During that time, she needed a lot of blood from many donors.
“Blood takes a community,” Ohl Turner told Thursday’s ribbon-cutting gathering, saying she felt there was more donor blood in her body than her own.
Thursday’s event marked the reopening of the new center in Kennewick that merged the organization’s humanitarian relief and blood services together under the same roof. The blood and platelet center had been in Richland for 25 years.
The remodeled building at 7202 W. Deschutes Ave. has housed the Red Cross since the seventies.
How Red Cross serves the region
The local Red Cross headquarters has six full-time phlebotomists and three other employees, including Michele Roth, executive director for Central and Southeast Washington. The organization is powered by hundreds of active volunteers.
The Red Cross humanitarian relief team and volunteers can deploy to the scene of a disaster or to set up a shelter with aid in two to three hours, said officials.
House fires are the most common incidents when the Red Cross is called to help. The organization supplies warm blankets, bottled water, toiletries, snacks and other basic items for free.
The Red Cross also helps maintain a life-saving supply of blood for those in need.
The organization provides about 40% of the nation’s blood and blood products, including whole blood, plasma and platelets.
Across the United States, it’s a health challenge to collect enough blood and platelet donations to keep up with the increasing need, said Red Cross officials. About 50% of platelet donations are sent to patients with cancer.
The Red Cross has a national goal of creating 100 more blood donation centers in the next five years and is taking steps to boost donations from Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ communities.
Go to redcrossblood.org to make an appointment to donate five days a week Friday-Tuesday in Kennewick or to view the daily mobile blood drives scheduled around the Tri-Cities area. Businesses and organizations also can schedule a mobile blood drive.
