Tom McCarthy has donated more than 10 gallons of blood during his lifetime. While working as an engineer at Tooele’s Deseret Chemical Depot, McCarthy reached the 10-gallon mark with his 80th donation three years ago — and he’s still donating, especially during the summer.

“It’s something good to do for other people and it doesn’t cost me anything,” McCarthy, 63, said at a blood drive hosted Friday by Wells Fargo in Tooele for the Greater Salt Lake Chapter of the American Red Cross.

During the summer months, blood donations decline across Utah, according to Lance Bandley, spokesman for Associated Regional and University Pathologists (ARUP) Blood Services.

“July and August are our slowest months,” Bandley said. “It’s a big challenge for us.”

In order to meet the demands of trauma patients, four upcoming blood drives are planned for Tooele County. Two will be held July 22 — one sponsored by the American Red Cross at Mountain West Medical Center and the other at the Tooele County Health Department — both from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Two drives will be held at LDS stake buildings: Friday at the Valley View East Stake building, 321 E. 1000 North in Tooele, and Monday, July 28, at the Tooele North Stake building, 583 N. 270 East. Both will take place from 3-8 p.m.

“We try to do three blood drives a day,” Bandley said. “We need 100 blood donors a day to meet the demands of hospitals we serve. We may get that five days out of the month during the summer.”

Another reason for the sharp decline in blood donations is with school out for the summer, high school students aren’t donating.

“A challenge over the summertime is we lose high schools who give us 30 percent of our donations,” Bandley said. “Tooele High School is the best in the state when it comes to donating.”

During three drives last school year, the ARUP collected 199 units of blood from THS students. The next closest school was Alta High School with 182 units.

ARUP is the sole provider to University Hospital, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Primary Children’s Medical Center and Shriners Hospital for Children. These four hospitals use approximately 25 percent of the donated blood in the state.

“More than 50 percent of patients at Primary Children’s, University and Huntsman come from outside of Salt Lake City,” he said. “Patients from all over the state are flown there.”

Much of that blood is destined for use by the youngest members of society.

“Primary Children’s needs blood for five to 10 babies a day,” Bandley said. “I get patient lists everyday and it breaks your heart to see who’s on the list — child after child, and newborns. There are children with cancer and leukemia and regular patients too. Most of the blood for babies has to be less than five days old. It’s an ongoing need.”

The Greater Salt Lake Chapter of the American Red Cross supplies 30 hospitals around the state. It was looking to get at least 15 donors during Friday’s drive. By noon it had 11, with three hours left in the drive.

“We try to go where the donors are,” said Judy Christensen, Utah’s American Red Cross spokesperson. “In Utah, we need 450 donations every business day.”

They will send out their mobile unit to whoever is willing to host a drive, often scheduling eight blood drives per day.

Christensen agrees the summer months are the most difficult for collecting blood.

“People are busy or on vacation, and they don’t think about donation,” Christensen said. “The need is big and it only takes about an hour.”

All of the blood collected by the American Red Cross is used at Utah hospitals first. If there are other states in need of blood, they will ship it across state lines.

“With the blood we collect, we don’t want the donor’s precious gift to be wasted,” she said.

Gabrielle Beckingham works at Wells Fargo in Tooele, where Friday’s drive was taking place. Her motivation for donating blood was simply to help other people.

“It’s convenient when they come out to us,” Beckingham, 32, said. “I know of someone who is going to be needing a transplant and my motivation is to help save lives.”

Three people can be saved for every one pint of blood that is donated, according to Bandley. And the precautions the American Red Cross and ARUP take to ensure the blood is safe is one of the reasons Linnea Olsen, of Tooele, donates. Olsen’s older brother died in 1982 from what she and her family believes was AIDS, which he may have contracted through a tainted blood infusion.

“I’m so grateful for all the testing they do,” said Olsen, 62, during the blood drive on Friday.

In order to donate blood, individuals must be at least 18 years old (17 with parental permission), weigh at least 110 pounds, bring a photo ID, and not have donated whole blood within the last 56 days. The blood technicians also ask a series of questions pertaining to medical, travel and sexual history.

The ARUP Web site www.utahblood.org lists how much blood has been used during each week. It also lists the number of people who have been helped by those donations.

“We like to let people know [where their blood goes],” Bandley said. “It makes it more personal. Behind each number there’s a real person.”

missy@tooeletranscript.com