San Diego Blood Bank Announces Grand Opening of Two New Donor Centers in Sabre Springs and El Centro

The San Diego Blood Bank is responding to our regions increasing demand for blood by opening new neighborhood donor centers in Sabre Springs and El Centro.           

On Friday, April 10, the San Diego Blood Bank’s new Sabre Springs Donor Center, located in the Sabre Springs Marketplace at 12640 Sabre Springs Parkway, San Diego, 92128, will host its Grand Opening celebration at 11am.  Local residents are invited to join community leaders and dignitaries for a ribbon cutting ceremony, tours of the facility and refreshments.  A free bone marrow testing drive will also be held during the grand opening of this center from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.           

The San Diego Blood Bank hopes the Sabre Springs Donor Center will provide local residents a more convenient location for donating blood.  Until now, the nearest neighborhood donor centers were located in Escondido or in Hillcrest.  The Sabre Springs center is projected to collect an additional 4,500 pints of lifesaving blood for the San Diego community in the first year.             

The new Imperial Valley Blood Services Donor Center, located at 1575 West Main Street, El Centro, 92243, will officially begin welcoming volunteer blood donors after its Grand Opening ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday, April 3. A free bone marrow testing drive will also be held during this grand opening event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.           

The San Diego Blood Bank has been the primary supplier of blood to El Centro Regional Medical Center and Pioneers Memorial Hospital since 1989.  In the past five years, the demand for blood from the two hospitals has increased by 27% while blood collections in the area have increased only 9%.             

Until now, all volunteer blood donations in Imperial Valley have been collected on the Imperial Valley Blood Services bloodmobile, which is dispatched by the San Diego Blood Bank.  Mobile drives will continue to take place at local schools, businesses and government agencies Tuesday through Thursday. The new donor center will be open from 8am to 4pm on Fridays and Saturdays and is expected to collect an additional 1,000 pints of blood for patients in 2009.            

Both new centers will allow patients the opportunity to give blood for their own planned surgery and provide donors the ability to direct their donation to a specific patient in need of blood.  In addition, the centers will also routinely offer free bone marrow testing on site.           

For more information on the San Diego Blood Bank’s new donor centers, visit SanDiegoBloodBank.org or call 1-800-4MY-SDBB (469-7322).