Your digest

#NovaScotiaStrong campaign kicks off with emotional blood donor events: When a mass shooting struck several tight-knit Nova Scotian communities this past April, the entire country rallied behind them. It was this outpour of support that inspired the #NovaScotiaStrong blood donation campaign, which runs until August 31 in honour of the victims. We had our official kick-off yesterday, August 17 in Milford, N.S — a small community where several of the shootings took place, and where Cst. Stevenson donated blood. When Charlene Bagley learned of the campaign, she knew she had to be involved. Her father, Tom Bagley, a retired firefighter, was killed by the gunman when rushing to his neighbour’s house, which was set on fire by the shooter. “If you knew my dad, he probably helped you at some point in your life,” says Charlene. “I recently discovered that he received a certificate for donating blood 100 times. Donating blood was something he believed was important.” Read more on blood.ca.

Canadian Blood Services backgrounds now available on Microsoft Teams: Although we’ve adapted to our new way of communicating, it can be difficult at times to maintain a sense of connection to our colleagues and our organization from behind a screen. To help employees continue to live our brand and maintain connections with the pillars that guide our work on behalf of patients, we have created five new Canadian Blood Services backgrounds that are now available for you to use on Microsoft Teams. We hope that you will display them proudly as a way of showing your commitment to the patients we serve each day (and of course as a handy way to hide the kid’s toys lying in the background)! Head over to Connect to learn more about how you can access the backgrounds for your next Teams meeting.

Frontline nurse donates cord blood: Little Meridian Lalalme was born July 28 at Brampton Civic Hospital, where her mother, Kryssandra Sammut, spent her pregnancy working through the pandemic in the emergency department. From early in her pregnancy, Kryssandra knew she wanted to donate her baby’s cord blood to Canadian Blood Services’ Cord Blood Bank, so she registered online in advance. “There are people out there who could benefit from something that we have” says Kryssandra. “Keeping it away from them was not something we thought was appropriate.” Read more about Meridian’s incredible donation and how her mom and dad are settling into life as new parents (in a pandemic) on blood.ca/stories.

Question of the day: Can you provide me with an update on our collections?

There has been strong work across the board to strengthen collections and inventory over the past two months and we are happy to report that we’re now back in our target inventory range for whole blood.

The early indicators of very strong demand have not been sustained, so we are now looking at building inventory to above our target levels. We’re working to moderate collections, while retaining the agility to strengthen again if necessary should there be a second wave.

Overall, there has been tremendous work to generate this level of agility and sustain the healthy levels of overall whole blood inventory during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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About your digest   

This digest will highlight the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.     

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