It’s summertime, but please don’t take a vacation from donating blood. Hospitals rely on blood donations to care for cancer patients, trauma victims, people undergoing surgeries and more. Blood donations traditionally drop off significantly in the summer months, but the demand for blood never takes a break. In fact, our healthcare facilities need 110 pints of blood daily to keep up with demand.

New Jersey used 31,400 more units of blood than it collected in 2012 (that’s the most recent data available.) While 60 percent of people in New Jersey are eligible to donate blood, only 3.6 percent of them do — compared with 5 percent nationally.

You can help. Find a blood donation site near you and schedule an appointment or drop in at a blood drive. Click here http://www.njha.com/community-health/blood-donation/places-to-donate/ for a list of blood centers at New Jersey hospitals.

Or, plan to attend the Aug. 6 mega blood drive at Rutgers’ Student Center, cosponsored by the university, the N.J. Department of Health and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. You can find more details here. http://www.njha.com/community-health/blood-donation/

If you’re an employer, I challenge you to hold a blood drive in your workplace. We hold several a year here at NJHA, and I’m very proud of the generosity of the NJHA employees who literally roll up their sleeves to help others.