Image credit: Crawfordsville Fire Department
There are lots of ways to celebrate EMS Week—May 17-23, 2026—from recognizing the skill, dedication and service of clinicians with a picnic, potluck or personalized certificate to celebrating specific theme days or holding a Stop the Bleed or CPR training class. This year, consider hosting a community blood drive during EMS Week to highlight the good work your clinicians do and benefit your community:
- Blood is in short supply. You might already know that the pool of blood donors continues to drop; in fact, it’s at its lowest level in more than a decade. Most communities experience shortfalls throughout the year, requiring them to put out regular, urgent calls for donations. As a trusted resource in your community, EMS is in a special position to attract potential donors and encourage them to give, offer a place to hold a drive and use your communication outlets to promote a drive to the public.
- Your agency may need blood products one day. You might have heard about the rapid increase in the number of EMS agencies with a prehospital blood transfusion program; to date, there are more than 370 across the country, with more being added all the time. These programs allow paramedics to administer blood products to a severely bleeding patient, either at the scene of an incident or en route to definitive care. Even if you don’t have a transfusion program now, if you’re considering setting up one, you’ll need to find a blood supplier. Holding a drive can be a good way to connect with potential blood-supply partners and start a conversation, and It also helps replenish the blood supply of nearby agencies with an existing transfusion program.
- Blood drives are a great community outreach tool. Recruitment and retention continue to be big challenges for most EMS agencies. The 2025 EMS Trend Survey found that one-quarter of respondents ranked inadequate staffing as the most stressful part of their job; 59% said “their agency does not have enough personnel to respond effectively.” Holding a drive is another way to connect with potential applicants as well as sharing with the public the work you do, promote classes and events, and offer other ways to engage with your agency, such as becoming an administrative volunteer.
You might consider holding your drive on Thursday, May 21, which is “Save-A-Life Day” for this year’s EMS Week. Many agencies use this day to promote their Stop the Bleed, CPR training or other public programs, making it an ideal time to include a blood drive.
To learn more about how to hold a blood drive, use the newly updated EMS Blood Drive Toolkit as a guide in planning, promoting and hosting your drive, and visit emsweek.org for more ideas for celebrating EMS Week 2026.