New blood center comes to Evans
A new Shepeard Community Blood Center in Evans is under way, and officials say its doors are scheduled to open within a month.
Pamela Rascon, Shepeard Community Blood Center's director of community resources, stands at the new site on North Belair Road in Evans. After a delay, the center is scheduled to open in a few weeks.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
"We are so excited about moving to Evans," Pamela Rascon, Shepeard's director of community resources, said about the center, which has been in the works for about a year. "We've been looking at the Columbia County market and the tremendous growth Columbia County has enjoyed."
Originally, the center at 460 N. Belair Road was scheduled to open this Monday, but Rascon said there have been a few delays.
"There are cable lines that still need to be run, the water is not turned on, etc. There's a lot of to-dos that still need to be done."
Once construction is complete, Rascon said, she hopes to have the center up and running by June 27. If that's not possible, she said, it could open during the second week in July.
Rascon says she hopes the new site's Evans location will draw more people to donate blood. The opening will mean half of the centers in the area are in Columbia County.
"Columbia County has been so supportive of our Martinez location, and with the growth quarter out there in the Evans area, we need to increase the opportunity for folks to conveniently donate," she said. "One of the statistics nationally is that 65 percent of the population is eligible to donate and only 5 percent donate."
Rascon believes that if more people are educated on how simple the process is then there will be an increase of donors.
"I think people are ready to have a call to action and respond," she said. "We just have to ask them."
For more information, call the center at 737-4551 or visit www.shepeardblood.org.