Joe Hotalski, of South Buffalo Township, watches as donor specialist Marissa DeJohn of Vitalant draws blood from his arm at the Zion United Methodist Church in Sarver on Thursday afternoon.

Blood services providers across Butler County are calling on residents to donate blood to combat an ongoing shortage.

Kristen Lane, communications manager with Vitalant for Western Pennsylvania, said that a plethora of different factors have contributed to the shortage, which she specifically calls a blood donor shortage — and not a blood shortage — because the lack of donation is at the root of the issue.

“The people who were the most loyal blood donors, the baby boomers, have started to shift from being blood donors to blood users,” Lane said. “So, we're losing a big chunk. Gen Z and millennials have not embraced the opportunity to be donors as much.”

Blood drives at colleges and high schools have been effective ways to involve young people in donating blood in the past, but it's been more difficult for blood donation nonprofits such as Vitalant to host them there with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Joe Hotalski of South Buffalo Twp. watches as donor specialist Marissa DeJohn of Vitalant draws blood from his arm at the Zion United Methodist Church in Sarver Thursday afternoon. Harold Aughton/Butler Eagle

Donor specialist, Marissa DeJohn, of Vitalant, draws blood from the arm of Joe Hotalski of South Buffalo Twp. at the Zion United Methodist Church in Sarver Thursday afternoon. Harold Aughton/Butler Eagle