WILMINGTON—Red Cross officials said over the last couple of months they have seen a drastic decrease in donations across most of the state.

Each weekday the agency strives for 1,600 donors, but they said they are not quite reaching the goal. Officials can not say for sure but they believe the mild winter and bad allergies could be to blame.

"Anytime we don't do that, then you add several of those days together, we dig ourselves a hole that we have to dig ourselves out of," said Red Cross Recruitment & Donor Resources Development manager Barry Hooker.

While the blood supply has not yet reached the critical level, officials said they are trying to be proactive because donations tend do drop even more in the summer.

"We work as hard as we can to make sure we don't let it dip too much before we can't reach hospital demand." said Hooker. "Because if we go to the hospital and need blood or blood products we want them to be there for us or our family members."

Donors get to walk away with a little thank you gift. From now until May 11t it is a sports bottle plus they are entered into a drawing to win a $1,000 gift card. Anyone who makes an appointment to donate receives a $5 gas card.

The small gifts are about encouraging people to donate.

"For those folks that need that extra little tug or extra little thank you we want to make sure we have that," said Hooker.
 
People can safely donate blood every 56 days. Approximately every two seconds, a patient in the United States needs blood. To donate call 1-800-RED CROSS or visit the American Red Cross website.