Blood donors swamp Red Cross; 300% rise in bookings in city
Thousands of New Yorkers, anxious to take some active part in D-Day swamped blood bank centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn yesterday in their eagerness to make blood donor appointments. By 8 o’clock last night, weary volunteer workers reported a 300% increase in “future bookings” over a normal day.
As early as 8:30 a.m. yesterday, the telephones in the booking rooms began to ring. Shortly thereafter, the number of women answering these calls for the New York chapter of the American Red Cross had to be doubled. One man reported that he had telephoned steadily between 9:00 a.m. and noon before he was able to make an appointment.
Hundreds of men and women appeared at the center, 2 E 38th Street, without appointments and waited as long as three hours to fill in when cancellations occurred. These were far below average. Other persons, unable to wait, made appointments for the future.
Invasion “jitters” apparently directed many to the blood bank. One woman, who waited two hours for a possible cancellation, said she was too nervous to sit at home and listen to the radio. Others revealed that they had wandered aimlessly, wanting to do something “useful,” until they found themselves in the neighborhood of the centers.
The long line of potential donors contained many who had never given blood before and an equal number who had. One man was waiting to make his 15th donation. Two women were celebrating their birthdays as well as D-Day. A family of three waited three hours “just in case our nephews and cousins who are taking part in the invasion might need the plasma.”
Servicemen and women, who are rushed through without appointments, also helped to swell the crowd. A dozen sailors appeared en masse. WACs and SPARS came in twos and threes. A soldier who had 25 minutes between trains thought there might be time for him to give blood.
Col. Earle Boothe, director of blood donor service, urged volunteers to keep appointments to assure a steady flow of plasma during the next few critical months. He appealed to residents not to relinquish their resolve to donate blood if they could not obtain immediate appointments.
The United Press reported a similar rush in Washington to give blood.