GeekWebGuides 2012 Blood Drive

GeekWebGuides is pleased to announce the third annual GeekWebGuides Blood Drive, for the month of May 2012. We encourage forum members and site visitors to donate blood or platelets at any hospital or blood donation center in their city. We want to increase the number of life-saving donations by our online community for the benefit of people in their real-world communities. We also ask donors to post photos or stories in our Blood Drive thread. Saving a life is its own reward but accepting recognition as a donor helps spread the message to others. Please join us in showing the spirit of our community by donating blood or platelets this month and letting us know. Details are in the GeekWebGuides 2012 Blood Drive thread.

Most blood drives are specific to a physical organization at a particular location. Ours is online and worldwide. You can help people in your city who are in need of life-saving blood and platelets in less than an hour of your time. If you are eligible to donate blood you can go to a hospital, community center, the Red Cross, or an independent donation center near you. If you are not eligible to donate yourself, please help the Blood Drive by encouraging other people to donate; see the Blood Drive thread for ideas.

Donated blood and platelets are needed every few seconds, all year, not just when calamities occur. They save the lives of people recovering from accidents, undergoing surgery, or struck by illness, including GeekWebGuides forum members who have let us know that their lives were saved by donated blood. There's no gift more precious than the gift of life.

Specific donor eligibility requirements vary by country. For links and general information see our Blood and Platelet Donation Guide. You can also save lives by registering to donate your organs and tissue and by registering to be a bone marrow donor; see our Organ, Tissue, and Bone Marrow Donation Guide.

Apple's health, relief, and charity efforts over the years have included donations for 9/11 workers in 2001, the fundraising Songs for Sudan effort in 2004, (PRODUCT) RED participation since 2006, help for victims of the Haitian earthquake in 2010 and Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, and most recently a $50 million donation to Stanford University hospitals and a charitable donation matching program that are part of Apple's recent emphasis on corporate philanthropy.