Unceasing need and coronavirus fears have combined to create an acute blood shortage in Western Pennsylvania.

One Butler County Community College student is making an effort to ease that scarcity.

Kara Whitmire, 21, of Herman has organized a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 21 in Room 230 in the Student Success Center.

Whitmire, who will graduate in May with a communications degree, was moved to set up a drive after meeting a cancer patient.

“I'm on the staff of the student newspaper, the Cube. I'm the entertainment editor. It was something my editor pitched,” Whitmire said.

She interviewed Mandy Walsh, 26, the daughter of Joy Walsh, associate professor of humanities and social sciences at BC3.

The younger Walsh suffers from Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells that requires weekly blood transfusions.

“She also needs a bone marrow transplant,” said Whitmire. “And she also needs blood. I figure it would be easier to ask people to give blood.”

Not that people seem that willing to part with a unit of their blood, even for a good cause.

Whitmire said a blood drive hadn't been held on campus since 2017 and that one didn't have a very good turnout.

Whitmire's efforts are needed, said Kristen Lane, the marketing head for Vitalant, the blood bank Whitmire contacted to supply equipment and workers for the April 21 blood drive. Vitalant used to be Central Blood Bank.

Lane said Vitalant will have six beds and attendants for the blood drive.

“The blood supply is very low in Western Pennsylvania. Fifty percent of the blood we need for the hospitals we contract with we have to import from out of the area,” said Lane.

Whitmire said, “My thought is there is such a need. You, yourself, might have a need someday. This way you give back when you can.”

To help make this blood drive a success, Whitmire said she has been spending weeks calling businesses to solicit donations of money or merchandise.

She said one BC3 alumnus has already donated $100, which she has used to make a relaxation gift basket. Anybody who donates blood in April will be entered into a raffle to win the gift basket.

“I'm really working hard at this,” she said. “I'm so passionate about giving back.”

Lane said the actual blood donation process from the initial screening to recovery will take about an hour.

It hasn't helped that the coronavirus fears have helped to suppress blood donations nationwide, according to Lane.

“You can't catch the coronavirus from giving blood,” she said. “We work closely with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

“Giving blood doesn't lower your immunity to the coronavirus,” Lane said.

Whitmire said she hopes people can put their fears aside and donate next month.

“It really saddens me that we are in one of the most-needed areas for blood. There is no substitute for blood,” she said.

She said she hopes to get at least 25 people to donate at her blood drive.

The effects of a donation can be multiplied, Lane said.

A unit of whole blood can be separated in a centrifuge into three component parts — red blood cells, platelets and plasma — components that can be used to treat three different patients.

“One unit can affect three lives. That's phenomenal,” said Whitmire. “When you give back, you have a sense of community. You know you are doing something important.”

WHAT: Blood drive at Butler County Community CollegeWHEN: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 21WHERE: Room 230 on the second floor of the Student Success Center on the BC3 campus