With the passage of the holiday season comes the increased need for area blood donors to give someone else another chance at life. To meet the need, January has been set aside as National Blood Donor Month.

"January is typically the heaviest blood usage month by area hospitals," said David Palmer, director of the American Red Cross office here. "There are periods throughout the year where we struggle to keep pace with the area hospital's demand for blood and January is one of them."

Palmer said there are several reasons for the blood shortage. Many times people decide to put off elective surgeries until after the holidays, he said. Bad weather figures in because blood drives sometimes have to be canceled, and there are also more accidents due to the hazardous driving conditions, he said.

"We are struggling to get donors and to keep up with the demand, but we're not at the critical stage yet," Palmer said. "We have had to cut back on certain blood types to hospitals and we're currently low on type O negative blood.

"There's always the possibility that if we do reach the critical stage surgeries may have to be canceled. But we're trying to keep that from happening."

Marilyn Hughey, blood bank supervisor at St. Francis Medical Center, said that during the holidays, donors have so many other things to do that they don't take the time to donate blood and there are not as many units available when they are needed.

Statistically there is a blood shortage during the winter months, said Janet Felter, blood drive chairperson at St. Francis. People who have had the flu or flu symptoms are afraid to donate blood, she said. Even the people who have had a flu shot are also a bit leery of donating blood.

The nurses screen candidates when they come to give blood and even those who have taken the flu vaccine can still donate, Felter said.

Palmer said he had found area hospitals' surgery schedules have been high for the first two weeks in January and they need more blood that may or may not be on the shelf.

The surgery schedule at St. Francis has had an increased number of required surgeries over the holiday season, said Dottie Worley, director of surgery at the hospital.

"This year we were busier the week between Christmas and New Year's than in the past," Worley said. "Usually it is a milder week in terms of the numbers of surgeries, but we had our regular schedule of surgeries and a lot of emergencies added on."

The American Red Cross and St. Francis are sponsoring a blood drive Thursday from 7 to 10 a.m. and from noon to 5 p.m. in conference rooms A and B, at 211 St. Francis Drive.

Their goal for the drive is 120 units.

The American Red Cross and the Jackson community are sponsoring a blood drive Monday from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Hall on North High Street.

"We're hoping that with Monday being a holiday that we have more donors," said Verna Lee Nitsch, who is in charge of the canteen at the American Legion Hall. "Our goal is 100 units, but a lot of times in the winter months we do go over our goal, like last year when we got a 133 units."

To be eligible to give blood, you must weigh at least 100 pounds and be at least 17 years of age. You can safely donate blood every eight weeks.