Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The American Red Cross blood donor center at Spirit Aerosystems has closed due to storm damage.

The center sustained damage when a tornado tore through Plant II on Saturday. Officials hope to reopen the facility April 27.

Donors are asked to go to the Wichita Blood Donor Center while repairs are being made to the Spirit facility.

“We rely on the generous donations of Spirit employees,” said Kim Talkington, director of donor recruitment at Red Cross. “Hopefully, these employees and other people throughout Wichita will make it a point to give blood at our Wichita Donor Center in the coming weeks to help make up for the loss of units of blood at Spirit.”

The Spirit site is normally open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week, and one Friday each month for employees only. An average of 130 units of blood is collected at Spirit each month.

The Wichita Blood Donor Center is open Monday - Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday: 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Saturday: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and the second Sunday of each month from10 a.m. to 2 p.m.