DES MOINES, Iowa — LifeServe Blood Center kicks off Blood Donor Day next week.

The event encourages first-time and regular donors to roll up their sleeves to save lives. You can donate blood at LifeServe’s locations in Des Moines, Urbandale, and Johnston on June 19th.

Organizers say that the event allows those who haven’t donated before to learn about the different ways to give blood.

“You know, there are different components. You give whole blood. That’s the traditional spend five, 10 minutes in a chair, and then you walk out. Double red cells are a little more, you know, it’s about double the time, but you’re giving red cells to, you know, trauma patients, to newborns who need those transfusions, to mothers who had difficult birthing issues. And then there’s platelets. And that’s every two weeks you can give platelets, and that’s removing the white blood cells and the platelets. And those are going to help cancer patients, you know, treating life-threatening illnesses,” said Tim Paluch, Lifeserve Blood Center.

LifeServe is working with community partners to host raffles for items like Adventureland passes, botanical garden memberships, and even Hinterland tickets.

You can sign up to participate in Blood Donor Day here.