The Coachella Valley announced on Thursday that they will participate in a blood donation competition.
Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, Indio, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Coachella, Indian Wells and Cathedral City will begin the friendly 10th annual 9 Cities Challenge competition beginning July 1 at participating locations through August.
Participants can go to fixed donor sites in La Quinta or Rancho Mirage and ask for their donation to count toward their respective city.
“The 9 Cities Challenge is an opportunity to direct a positive, meaningful focus of community energy toward assisting our most vulnerable loved ones, friends, neighbors and colleagues,” said LifeStream’s president, CEO and medical director Dr. Rick Axelrod.
Palm Springs won with 225 pints of blood out of the 812 pints that were collected by the nine cities in 2021. The blood helped about 2,000 local patients, according to Alexrod. He said the goal is to collect 1,000 pints or more this year.
According to a statement from the blood bank, summer is a critical time of need for blood donations because it’s the most challenging time to collect blood.
All donors will get a T-shirt, beach towel and coupon for a free scoop at The River’s Ben & Jerry’s. They will also have a chance to win a two- night stay at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club in Palm Springs, a Jeep tour for two, a table-top gas grill, a $100 Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers gift basket and a $50 Quick Quack Car Wash gift basket.
The most successful blood drive chair people will have a chance to win 52 scoops of Ben & Jerry’s ice scream, two tickets to LifeStream’s Thanks4Giving Gala and a $100 Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers gift basket.
The competition will conclude August 31, but those outside of the Coachella Valley can find a local blood drive through the Red Cross website.
LifeStream provides blood to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio.
