Leidos: A Champion for Blood Donation through the American Red Cross on World Blood Donor Day
Leidos has partnered with the American Red Cross for nearly eight years through blood donation drives, disaster relief, board leadership, kit building for homeless veterans and more. Leidos also launched blood drives at our Columbia, Maryland, and Reston, Virginia headquarters starting in October 2015. World Blood Donor Day, celebrated on June 14th, serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.
A Legacy of Blood Donation
After launching in Columbia and Reston, blood drives became a key engagement tradition for our employees. San Diego employees have worked with the San Diego Blood Bank, and we’ve offered virtual "Sleeves-Up Drives" for extra convenience.
Core to our commitment to inclusion, we partnered with the African American Leidos Network (AALN) ERG to sponsor a sickle-cell anemia drive in September of 2022. One hundred thousand people in the U.S. are living with sickle cell disease, most of whom are African American or of African descent. The disease affects 1 out of every 365 African American babies born in this country. Partnering with AALN brought attention to the urgent need for blood donors who are Black.
In April of this year, the Red Cross and the Leidos Pride ERG hosted an informational webinar to walk through the history of the FDA guidelines of blood donation, how the FDA has made changes to the latest set of guidelines and what that means for the LGBTQ+ community. The goal is to shed light on the stigma of blood donation within the community and offer answers to decades old questions around the topic.
Paris Davis, Principal Proposal Coordinator Lead, and a regular donor, stated that "knowing that my blood donations, especially as a CEK-negative donor, can help people with sickle cell disease manage their condition is incredibly rewarding. Donating blood is a simple act that can have a big impact on someone's life."
Convenient and Critical
Since 2016, Leidos has hosted 31 blood drives for more than one thousand donors including 171 first time donors and collected 926 units of blood at GHQ. Hosting blood drives at GHQ has made it easier for Leidos employees and local community residents, to give.
Beyond convenience, Leidos employees are motivated by the inherent value of blood donation. With nearly 30,000 units of blood needed each day, the American Red Cross is continually in need of donors. One pint of blood can save up to three lives. Even during a global pandemic, Leidos committed to diminishing the national blood crisis, collecting 278 units from 2020-2021.
"It is such an easy way to do something bigger than yourself for someone else," said Deputy General Counsel, Erica Bomsey. She recalled the aftermath of 9/11, when the desire to help overwhelmed donation centers. "It is a small act that can have a big impact. Having [blood drives] outside the office door makes it so easy! That small act is magnified into a large act when there are so many of us that can do so at once."
Blood donation is one of the most direct and personally significant forms of giving that we can participate in as members of our local and international communities.
Making a Difference, One Donation at a Time
Not only is donating blood so important, but the process is very quick, only taking about 20 minutes for the physical donation. For perspective, if just 1% more of all Americans would donate, blood shortages "would disappear for the foreseeable future.”
By fostering convenient donation opportunities, championing inclusivity, and educating employees about the critical need for blood, Leidos empowers its workforce to make a life-saving difference.
Blood Donation Fast Facts:
- Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
- Blood is needed by women with complications during pregnancy and childbirth, children with severe anemia, often resulting from malaria or malnutrition, accident victims, surgical and cancer patients.
- Regular blood donation by a sufficient number of healthy people is needed to ensure that blood will always be available whenever and wherever it is needed.
- While the need for blood is universal, access to blood is not. Blood shortages are acute in low- and middle-income countries.
- Approximately 29,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the U. S.
- Only about 3% of age-eligible people donate blood yearly
