Donate blood, get beer.
In a promotion lasting until today, the Lane Blood Center has teamed up with Hop Valley Brewing to provide blood donors who are 21 and older with a glass and a certificate for a free pint of beer in exchange for a pint of blood.@@seriously?@@ @@No, we’re just messing with our readers.@@

“We just started this promotion this year,” said Lori Abeyta,@@http://www.laneblood.org/bloodmobile-drives/@@ accountant representative of LBC. “Hop Valley has been so gracious with this partnership. Already, 1,500 people have donated under this promotion since Dec. 19.”
Donors must register before donating and must wait three hours to cash in their free beer.@@is that enough time? @@ The certificate does not have an expiration date though, and donors may also choose to receive a free soda instead of the beer. Giving blood takes less than an hour and can save up to three lives, according to Abeyta.
Hop Valley and LBC intend to make this promotion an annual event, with the promotion being kicked off with a blood mobile on the first and last days outside of the brewery.@@irresponsible@@
Blood banks often suffer from shortages at this time of year because of regular donors traveling, schools being out of session, and cold and flu season. LBC sought to combat the shortages by appealing to a different age group through this promotion.
“It was our largest collection month ever in December,” Abeyta said. “We’ve seen more college kids and people in their mid-twenties and thirties. A different generation is coming in.”@@you think?@@
Ed Lackington, the manager of Hop Valley, said he is happy to partner with LBC to promote blood donations.
“It’s great for us to be able to do something community involved, and people are having fun with it. Every day we’re getting the people in to get their free pint,” he said.@@greedy@@
University junior Kelly Vigil@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Kelly+Vigil+@@ was initially surprised when he heard about the promotion. Vigil has been a regular blood donor since his freshman year.
“It seems kind of funny because you would get more drunk after donating blood,” he said. “You could easily see that you shouldn’t be promoting drinking, but then again I think the cause of getting people to donate blood is more important than the repercussions that it might cause.”@@but people will still come in to donate without using beer as an incentive@@
Vigil said he thinks the promotion might appeal to someone who has been hesitant toward donating because it could promote group mentality@@what?@@ and provide good motivation.@@”Where you going, bro?” “Oh, just going to donate blood and get my free drink on, brosef. You in?” “Yeah, I don’t have class tomorrow until noon. Totally winning, you know?”@@
Hop Valley has seen approximately 300 people cash in their vouchers for their free pint thus far and expect many more in the future.
“The overriding sentiment is that we did this because it was the right thing to do @@uh huh@@and we want to be involved in the community,” Lackington said. “I do think it has turned out to be a win-win for everybody.@@er…no@@ I think the people that come in feel good about it, and we feel good about giving a pint of beer.”@@dher! – of course you do. give free peanuts away instead @@