Capt. Justin Diez led by example Tuesday, joining in on the blood drive held in the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station parking lot.
Working in tandem, the station and its partners from The Rotary Club of Santa Clarita Valley invited the Houchin Community Blood Bank out to collect a projected 30 units of blood — an amount that could potentially be used to save close to 90 people — during the community event.
“It’s a good way to partner with the community … and give back because the community supported us so much over the last year,” said Diez, when asked why the SCV Sheriff’s Station decided to put on the event.
The SCV’s top cop joked the projection for the amount of blood generated during the event could even be higher than 30, as people walked in off the street to donate, and he encouraged staff to “get their butts over there,” even if they didn’t sign up beforehand.
“We definitely have some extra bodies,” said Diez, later adding, “And there was a bunch of walk-ins, too, like people off the street. I saw, when I was in there … three or four come in off the street.”
“The need for blood is still very critical in our community, and it’s been very hard to get our supply up to where it needs to be over the last year and a half,” said Synthia Rocha, an account manager at the Houchin Community Blood Bank. “They were kind enough to host an event and try to help us collect blood from the deputies themselves, or the deputies asking friends and family of theirs to come out.”
Rocha said the majority of the blood would stay within the community, and be given to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.
“There’s still so many things that (the blood) is being used on: car accidents, shootings, cancer patients, surgeries, NICU,” said Rocha. “There’s a plethora of events that would need blood, so as much as we get them, we’re distributing them out.”
For more information about upcoming blood drives hosted by Houchin around the Santa Clarita Valley, visit https://hcbb.com/.
