Bloodworks is investing in community health – and it’s happening because of you.
Thanks to the financial donors who supported our Mission in Motion campaign, we have added two new blood drive-ready vehicles to our fleet – and, for the first time, they are based out of our Beaverton Donor Center!
This change brings our mobile operations closer to the communities we serve in Oregon. We can now reach more donors across Portland and in the surrounding communities that have historically had fewer opportunities to donate. Better access means more Oregonians can participate in lifesaving care, and our locally supported blood supply is stronger because of it.
“Our first drive was on January 6, and it’s definitely something we have been looking forward to since we first started to build out the Beaverton Donor Center,” said Jake Cole, Beaverton Donor Center supervisor. “Now we can see many more donors than we would have ever seen before!”
And more local donors means greater local impact.
Across Northwest Oregon, patients facing trauma, surgery, childbirth complications, and cancer treatment depend on blood being available the moment they arrive at the hospital. That’s where Bloodworks comes in. We work with local donors to meet the needs of patients at leading hospitals, including OHSU, Legacy Emanuel, and Providence Portland. Meeting that need requires tens of thousands of local blood donations each year. When more people are able to donate, hospitals are better equipped to care for patients safely and without delay.
Until now, blood drives in Portland and surrounding cities were staffed by teams traveling from Vancouver and Olympia. This approach worked, but it limited how far and how often we could go to Oregon. With a dedicated Beaverton-based mobile team and our newly funded vehicles, we’re able to increase efficiency, decrease complexity, and most importantly, expand access.
We’re bringing donation opportunities closer to where people live, work, worship, and play in Portland, while also increasing our ability to reach rural communities beyond Portland. And that is exactly why we launched the Mission in Motion campaign.
Due to geographic and logistical barriers, some of the communities we serve have had fewer consistent opportunities to give than others, even though patients everywhere depend on the same blood supply. Mission in Motion is designed to close that gap by putting more blood drive vehicles on the road to meet donors where they are, regardless of their ZIP code.
More blood drives require an expanded Beaverton staff, and Jake and his team are ready.
“I have already hired four additional staff. We have two that have already completed training and are full-fledged phlebotomists and two that are going to go into training. We are well staffed and prepared!”
With the team in place and the new vehicles on the road, Mission in Motion is already making a difference. More drives are happening, and more donors are showing up. Today, it is easier for Oregonians to take part in sustaining the blood supply… and soon we’ll be opening a permanent donor center in Tacoma, bringing opportunities to serve even more communities.
We think that’s something worth celebrating!
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