Bloodworks' Beaverton Donor Center opens October 21

The greater Portland, OR area will soon have a new option to donate blood.

Bloodworks is excited to announce our brand-new Beaverton Donor Center, opening on October 21. Donors can already begin booking appointments.

The Beaverton Donor Center represents an exciting evolution for Bloodworks. We currently serve 15 hospitals in eight Oregon counties, and while Bloodworks’ Vancouver team has collected in Portland in limited capacity since 2014, the need for locally provided blood products has outpaced our ability to serve local donors.

Why Beaverton?

Vancouver, WA isn’t just in a different state from Portland, OR.

“As the crow flies, it may not seem like Vancouver is that far away, but they are really worlds apart,” said Meg Hall, director of Community Engagement & Expansion. “It’s very difficult to get from Vancouver to the suburbs West of Portland.”

Portland has a reputation as a fun, quirky city with a neighborly feel, but bridge traffic gives “put a bird on it” a whole new meaning.

“The population of Northwest Oregon in general has shifted out to the suburbs,” added Meg.

Despite its status as a suburb, Beaverton is home to Nike, the Silicon Forest, and nearly 100,000 residents, making it a destination all its own.

An all-new center

We’ve moved and reopened fresh in Renton, Bellevue, and Bellingham in recent years, but this is the first brand new location in a new area for Bloodworks in a long time.

“We worked with both new architects and contractors, and they really did well in understanding what we needed in the center,” said Connie Shyne, Facilities Operations and Administrative Manager. “Jake Cole, the Beaverton Center supervisor, was involved in all planning meetings and was a constant source of advice.”

Jake’s role also included hiring and developing the new Beaverton team.

“The hiring and training of our Beaverton team was a new opportunity for us as we have never embarked on developing a large group for one location before,” Jake said.

All of the collections staff are brand new to Bloodworks, hired specifically for the Beaverton Center, but donors making the move from Vancouver to Beaverton may see some familiar faces – the Beaverton team has been working alongside veteran Bloodworks staff in Vancouver since late 2022.

“With the ample time for our Beaverton team to acclimate and develop their skillsets, we are certainly prepared for our transition from the Vancouver center to our new Beaverton location,” Jake added.

*The Beaverton team visits the new donor center*.

A new model

We based a lot of the planning off of existing donor centers, like Renton, but the Beaverton Donor Center is a whole new concept.

“This project is more in line with what I believe will be our new standard of smaller donor centers in neighborhoods we really want to service,” said Connie.

For starters, the Beaverton donor center is a little smaller than other Bloodworks donor centers with five beds, keeping the small-town vibe that residents love about the Portland area.

We know that donors want convenience, and this model covers this in two different ways.

The Beaverton donor center offers plenty of parking, a shopping center down the road for pre- or post-donation errands, and a quick 10-minute drive from Nike, Beaverton’s largest employer.

We can’t come directly to your house, but coming to where you work, shop, learn, or worship is a close alternative. This new location provides a better home base for mobile drives in the greater Portland community.

We have already increased the number of mobile drives in the Beaverton area out of our Vancouver donor center. And soon, we’ll add a new bloodmobile dedicated to Portland donors!

Lastly, the Beaverton Donor Center be open for blood donation on Tuesdays and Saturdays. On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, staff will be in the community at mobile drives. While blood collection specialists often move around as needed, covering both donor centers or mobile drives, this is the first team designed specifically to operate both.

However, the center will not be empty.

When not serving donors, the donor center will be used by Bloodworks Bio and Bloodworks Apheresis (formerly the Washington Center for Apheresis Therapy) to collect special cells for biomedical research and development of new pharmaceuticals.

Collaboration is key

This project represents collaboration across nearly all departments at Bloodworks.

“I love building out spaces for Bloodworks,” said Connie Shyne, Facilities Operations and Administrative Manager. “There are always challenges and new ideas that we try to incorporate to make the employee and donor experience one they enjoy. It makes me feel like I am contributing to our mission in a very tangible way.”

Jake adds, “Working with multiple departments and leadership to develop our new donor center has been a thrilling adventure in itself.”