ORANGE, Connecticut — June 11, 2019 — Employees of AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), a diversified clean energy company, today rolled up their sleeves and held a blood drive. Along with leading U.S. companies, organizations and brands, AVANGRID is partnering with the American Red Cross on its Missing Types campaign to help raise awareness of the need for blood and platelet donations.
As part of the campaign, brands remove the letters A, B and O—the main blood groups— from their logos. When A, B, O and AB blood types are missing from hospital shelves, patient care may be impacted. To help raise awareness, AVANGRID will be removing the letter “A” from its name during the month of June for all digital communications.
“At AVANGRID, we know having a stable and sufficient blood supply is critical to the health of our communities,” said Bob Kump, Deputy CEO & President of AVANGRID and Avangrid Foundation Director. “Knowing that only three out of every 100 people donate blood motivated us to partner with the Red Cross on the Missing Types campaign. Our goal is to help inspire more people to donate blood, starting with our employees.”
AVANGRID has a long history of collaboration with the Red Cross. Most recently, the Avangrid Foundation joined the Red Cross Disaster Responder Program in 2018.
“As a leading gas and electricity provider, we understand what it means to be on the front lines of a crisis or a natural disaster. Our employees have worked alongside the Red Cross and closely coordinated relief efforts in several communities for years,” said Kump, who also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross Connecticut chapter.
Join the movement
New and current donors can do their important part to help fill in the missing types and ensure blood is available for patients in need. Visit RedCrossBlood.org/MissingTypes, download the Red Cross Blood Donor App or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to schedule an appointment to give.
Summer is one of the most challenging times of the year for the Red Cross to collect blood and platelet donations with schools that host blood drives on break and many people enjoying a vacation and other seasonal activities. Patients don’t get a vacation from needing lifesaving blood during the summer months. Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood, and it can only come from volunteer donors. Blood and platelets are needed for accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients and those receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease.
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