KIRYAS JOEL – A total of 130 residents of the Village of Kiryas Joel stepped up over the Memorial Day weekend and donated blood to help ease the national blood shortage as a result of COVID-19.
The donations “will be shared in a pool that is accessible to every hospital and every patient,” said Barry Schoenbrun, the blood drive organizer and member of Kiryas Joel EMS, also known as KJ Hatzolah.
The blood and plasma drive was held in Montvale, NJ, conducted by the Pennsylvania-based Miller-Keystone Blood Center. “The lives that may be spared are simply immeasurable,” said Quiana Cressman, Miller-Keystone’s executive director for donor operations.
“Each of the donors has recovered from the coronavirus and is doing their small part to help others recover as well,” said Mordy Serle of the COVID Plasma Initiative. “The Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish community has led the way in plasma donations, with people often traveling hundreds of miles to centers in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania and New Brunswick, NJ.”
Serle said over the past few weeks, “hundreds of Kiryas Joel residents have donated convalescent plasma.”
