FAIR OAKS, CA (MPG) - Interior repairs at the Vitalant blood donation center at 11713 Fair Oaks Boulevard in Fair Oaks near the corner of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Madison Avenue in the Almond Plaza have been completed on schedule and donation appointments at the center have resumed.

Closure was projected to last four to six weeks from mid-February for the repair of a deteriorating concrete floor, as well as to make other general interior improvements.

Returning donors will see a new front counter in the lobby area and a refreshed post donation snack area. Individual donation appointments resumed on Sunday, March 19^th with a full calendar scheduled.

Lorraine Schlak, RN, BSN, supervisor of the Fair Oaks blood donation center, welcomed donors back to the Fair Oaks facility.

“There continues to be an urgent need for public donations of both blood and blood plasma,” she said.

The closure was the first by Vitalant since it moved into the Fair Oaks location 12 years ago. The donation is adjacent to where a new Ace Hardware Home and Garden center will open this summer.

The February closure affected 12 medical donation staff members who were reassigned to other local Vitalant centers while equipment and office furnishings were placed in temporary storage.

The Fair Oaks center has 15 donation stations, and on average receives 600 whole blood donations per month. Each whole blood donation takes about 45 minutes to complete from intake interview screening to post-donation patient recovery where volunteers serve snacks and refreshments.

The average time to complete a plasma donation is longer, she said. “We typically receive 24 plasma donations per day, or up to 120 each month,” Schlak said.

“We will continue to reach out through social media, email and phone calls to our regular donors and many volunteers that we have reopened in Fair Oaks,” she said.

“We’re especially grateful to our many regular volunteers who continued to actively support our center during our temporary closure,” she said.

Founded in 1943, Vitalant is one of the nation’s oldest and largest non-profit transfusion medicine organizations, comprising a network of about 120 community blood centers. In all, Vitalant provides lifesaving blood and comprehensive transfusion medical services for about 900 hospitals and their patients across the U.S.

All healthy donors are urged to donate now, she said. “If you’ve had COVID-19 and have been symptom-free for 10 days, you are eligible to donate,” she said. “Whatever your COVID-19 vaccination status, you are absolutely allowed to give blood or platelets.”

Call Vitalant (877) at 258-4825 to schedule a whole blood or plasma donation appointment. Visit: https://www.vitalant.org for more information.

Prospective donors should visit: https://www.vitalant.org/Donate/Health-History-Questionnaire to view basic donation requirements. Appointment pre-registration and screening is encouraged, Schlak said.