Blood Alliance to donate mobile clinic to Haiti

Blood Alliance retiring bloodmobile; mobile clinic to help more than three million in Haiti

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Blood Alliance in Jacksonville is about to make a huge donation to Haiti. It's retiring its bloodmobile to help more than three million people.

Not only will the blood mobile help with blood donations in Haiti, it will also provide a variety of general medical practices as a medical clinic.

"It's wonderful that a small little idea can evolve into something that can impact that many lives," said Odette Struys with the Blood Alliance.

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Struys overheard her CFO say they were retiring a bloodmobile and that's when a lightbulb turned on. She gave a tour of to medical exchange students from Haiti several years ago and they were in awe.

"'Oh, it's air-conditioned we don't have a hospital that's air-conditioned, we would love to have a bus like this' and I remembered that and I said, 'Jack I'll find it a home in Haiti' he said okay," said Struys.

With the help of two rotary clubs in town and some other local organizations, she was able to turn her vision into reality. The bloodmobile is scheduled to head to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday March 22nd, and will arrive in Port-Au-Prince three days later.

"It's going to be a really sizable gift for them because the value of the bloodmobile right now is $230,000 so we're delighted we could give it to them," said Struys.

Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m., new logos will be added to the bloodmobile and the title deed will be signed over to the organization in Haiti to make it officially theirs.

The Blood Alliance also wants to remind everyone that they're running short on blood, so if you're interested in donating, visit igiveblood.com/PINT or call 888-99-TBA-HERO (888-998-2243).