Glory Reitz
LifeSouth Community Blood Centers celebrated 50 years and the opening of renovated facilities at its Newberry Road location on Wednesday. LifeSouth board members, officials, staff and Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce members visited over food and drink to toast the blood center’s growth and success.
Carl Smith, vice chair of the board of directors, said after 14 years on the board he has seen LifeSouth making a difference in the community.
“Our lifesaving mission is only accomplished through the generosity of our blood donors,” Smith said. “That is always the most important part, and we look forward to continuing to welcome lifesaving blood donors to this facility.”
LifeSouth began in Gainesville in 1974, when the area hospitals asked the Civitan Club to start a local blood center, as there was no structure in place to support volunteer blood donations.
The group personally guaranteed a $50,000 loan to start the first LifeSouth blood center, a network which has grown immensely in the past 50 years. LifeSouth now serves over 150 hospitals in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, and employs about 1,000 people.
“You [LifeSouth] have been such a great support system, not only for our community but also our chamber. We greatly appreciate you for that,” Julianne Raymond Flinchum, the Gainesville chamber’s member development manager, said in a speech.
LifeSouth is still the sole blood provider in Alachua County, and President and CEO Kimberly Kinsell said blood collected locally is distributed locally.
“We rely on the community, and the goodwill of the community, whether that’s donors, that’s our staff, that’s everyone,” Kinsell said in an interview. “But really… why we’re here is to benefit our community, the patients in need at our area hospitals.”
The ribbon-cutting at the Newberry Road blood center was not in celebration of a new building or location, but of renovations. LifeSouth moved into the building about 20 years ago, according to Kinsell, and the facility has now served “probably tens of thousands of donors.”
Kinsell thanked LifeSouth donors, and the employees for their hard work recruiting donors, testing, processing and delivering the blood. She also thanked the volunteer board of directors.
“This is a group of folks who are very community-minded and altruistic, and never lose sight of the fact that patients are at the other end of what we do every day,” Kinsell said in a speech. “They make sure it is important that we stay true to our mission, and that we are doing the best we can to support our communities and the patients that we serve.”
Kinsell encouraged the community to stay involved and keep donating, noting that without the help of donors, LifeSouth would not be able to do anything.
“We have to have the blood on the shelf before the patient needs it,” Kinsell said.
