Amid the excitement and volunteer opportunities generated by the city’s major events this summer, the American Red Cross remains focused on the work it does every day — collecting and delivering lifesaving blood and responding to local disasters like home fires. To ensure these essential services continue uninterrupted, teams have developed contingency plans to address road closures and heavy traffic that could affect volunteers’ ability to reach critical locations.

One of the team’s highest priorities is maintaining the uninterrupted flow of blood products from the Red Cross Spring Garden Campus to area hospitals.

According to Jim Leahy, program specialist for operations and logistics, the Red Cross began pre-stocking blood at Philadelphia trauma centers ahead of the first major event to help ensure blood products are already there when needed.

Jim’s team is responsible for transporting blood collected at mobile drives throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware to the Spring Garden Campus in North Philadelphia for processing. From there, they deliver blood products — including red cells, platelets and plasma — to hospitals across the region and sometimes beyond.

While many deliveries follow a schedule, others are urgent. Patients with rare blood types may require a specific unit of blood, making timely transportation critical.

“We have five to 10 volunteers on the road at any given time,” Jim said.

Given the volume of blood collected in the region and the large number of hospitals served, approximately 180 volunteer blood transportation specialists are supplemented by 22 paid drivers. To help minimize delays and frustrations caused by event-related traffic, Jim has assigned paid drivers to routes near the South Philadelphia sports complex and the Lemon Hill area of Fairmount Park through mid-July.

At the same time, all Red Cross drivers — and everyone carrying out the mission in the field — carry documentation identifying them as essential workers, helping ensure they can reach their destinations when needed.

Beyond avoiding areas impacted by major events, operations have remained largely unchanged.

“Everything is operating status quo,” Jim said.

Some Blood Transportation Specialist volunteers have also stepped up to serve as shuttle drivers for disaster volunteers supporting 13 summer events. These teams are strategically positioned throughout the city on key event days, ready to provide sheltering and reunification services if needed.

Stephen Kelly is one of those volunteers. He made several shuttle trips on July 2nd, when the Red Cross was supporting preparedness operations for Wawa Welcome America events near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

"I live close close by and was available. So when the call went out, I signed up," he said. 

In his usual volunteer role as a blood transportation specialist, Stephen drives blood from the Spring Garden Campus to area hospitals at least once per week. You can usually find him on a mid-day hospital run to locations across Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, "wherever the need is." He also signs up to deliver blood products all the way to Hershey!

Stephen has been in the role for about 3 years, starting after he retired. 

"I was looking for something to do, and I'm always around here," he said, adding that he has given blood at the Spring Garden Campus for years and his Laborers' Local Union 57 is just down the street.

And while he says that traffic is a little more congested with all of the city's happenings, for the most part, it's been business as usual. 

Whether transporting blood to hospitals, supporting disaster response operations or adapting to unusual logistical challenges, Red Cross volunteers and staff continue to move the mission forward, ensuring communities can count on the organization’s lifesaving services every day, regardless of what is happening in the city around them.

---------------

- Written by Alana Mauger