With over 75 years of experience in delivering precious life-saving products in our community, SunCoast Blood Centers is the go-to partner for blood-related healthcare services in Southwest Florida. The only thing that has changed for the organization in recent years is their central location—all facets of the operation are now under one roof in their beautiful Lakewood Ranch headquarters. Prior to the move in March 2020, the organization had their main lab in Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH). As the hospital began to grow by leaps and bounds, Suncoast Blood Centers found themselves needing to relocate their labs and administrative offices. Rather than pay rent for multiple facility spaces, they decided to move all functions into one centralized space.

“We took five locations from all across Sarasota and Manatee Counties and put them here in our Lakewood Ranch headquarters during the pandemic,” shares Community Liaison, Joan Leonard. “We moved in the day Florida shut down everything. It was a wise decision on our part and the timing couldn’t have been any better. We had 25,000 square feet coming from a combination of about 10,000 square feet so everybody suddenly had their own offices and we were easily socially distanced. Moving to Lakewood Ranch was a blessing in disguise for us. We have staff members that have worked for us for more than 30 years and never worked under the same roof until now, it’s really wonderful.” From their new headquarters, SunCoast is able to stage their mobile units, house their administrative staff and share a wonderful teaching facility with the public. “By being under one roof, we can show the community from start to finish blood collection and everything else we do, our finance operations, quality assurance, it’s like a regular business with healthcare being our main goal,” adds Leonard.

As the local blood supplier serving five counties, SunCoast Blood Centers currently has 140 employees and about 85 to 100 volunteers. Their products go as far north as Moffitt Cancer Center and as far south as Charlotte County. “Everything that we collect from the community stays in the community,” says Leonard. In recent years, however, organizations like SunCoast are struggling to find donors. According to the company’s statistics, twenty-five years ago, fifteen percent of the population donated regularly, whereas currently, only three percent of the population is donating. ”We can’t blame it all on Covid, although the pandemic certainly played a part,” Leonard sharess. “In the generation before us, it was an obligation to donate blood, because many people served in the armed forces. We don’t see that in the 25 to 50-year-old population today. People don’t move to Lakewood Ranch and say ‘Where am I going to donate blood today?’ They are here to find the best schools, breweries, pickleball and all of the other great things that bring people to our region. Also, a lot of people have come from Red Cross serviced areas up North so they’re only used to donating blood at the Red Cross. There is no Red Cross connection here in the state of Florida—we are the local supplier of our hospitals.”

One way that SunCoast is trying to remedy the problem is by reaching out to local schools and luckily, the new headquarter’s location is close to some great ones. “We have an awesome partnership with the local schools, and we’ve found that high school students have been incredibly helpful volunteers and interns,” explains Leonard. The SunCoast team is also out and about more than ever before with very visible mobile vehicles visiting new HOAs, attending public speaking events and presenting at coffee talks at local clubhouses. “As a nonprofit, we are looking for blood, money and time,” says Leonard. “We host blood drives at schools and we have a volunteer core team of about 25 people who are at the blood drives and then deliver the product to our hospitals three times a day. Today alone, we have a team here stuffing 1,000 mailers for us. There are a lot of opportunities to help us get the word out and we encourage all members of the community to get involved, students, teachers, retirees, we appreciate all of our volunteers.”

Leonard is always happy to give a tour of the organization’s impressive facility. “I love showing what we do because I think a lot of people don’t realize that this product has to come from one human heart to another—it’s not found on the shelves at Walmart or Walgreens.” She also adds that SunCoast is on the frontlines of technology in the industry and she credits CEO, Scott Bush for much of this. “Scott is very innovative. While we are recognized as one of the smaller blood centers across the country, we are also one of the first ones to present new ideas,” she says. “When Covid hit, for example, we lost 95% of our blood drives. To make up for this loss, we started our Donate at Home program that still continues today. So if somebody’s working from home, or is unable to get out, we will come right to their driveway with the vehicle to donate.” 

SunCoast Blood Center, 3025 Lakewood Ranch Blvd, Suite 111, Bradenton, 1-866-97-BLOOD, suncoastblood.org.