Giving Blood at the Merced Fair Rocks
By Diane Booth Conway,
Merced County Fair Communications & Marketing Director

Donate a pint of blood at the 2008 Merced County Fair and you could end up winning gallons and gallons of gas!

BloodSource will hold a blood drive at the fairgrounds, 900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, on Wednesday, July 16 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The drive is scheduled before the fair opens at 5 p.m. The bloodmobile will be parked near the Blue Devil Bench Dance Slab near Livestock.

Everyone who donates at the fairgrounds blood drive will be rewarded with a coupon for a free pint of Baskin Robbins ice cream, a BloodSource T-shirt and the first 25 donors will get a VIP carnival ticket strip good for two free carnival rides any day of the fair. Participants also will be entered in a drawing to win one of 5 gas cards worth $500 each.

There’s always a great need for donors during the summer months because college and high school students, who make up about 15% of blood donors, are out of school. And with all the fires burning around the state, especially in Butte County, blood donations are down since regular donors aren’t giving blood.

Giving blood is easy, safe, and takes less than an hour. To be a blood donor you must be in generally good health, at least 17 years old, (16 with parental consent) and weigh 110 pounds or more. There is no upper age limit for donating blood. Prospective donors must bring photo ID.

To make a life-saving appointment, call BloodSource at 724-0428.

For information, call the fair office at 722-1507 or email Info@MercedCountyFair.com or fax at 722-3773. Visit the 2008 Merced County Fair’s award-winning website, www.MercedCountyFair.com

Top of page