Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services Celebrates 40 Years of Serving the Community

DAYTON, OHIO – Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services (CBC/CTS), headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, will celebrate its 40th anniversary of service to the community on September 14, 2004.

CBC welcomed its first six blood donors on Monday, Sept. 14, 1964. In 1964, it was estimated between 50 and 60 pints of blood were needed daily for the five Dayton general hospitals. Today, 325 pints of blood are needed daily for the 25 hospitals CBC serves. With advances in medical technology and the aging of the population, blood usage continues to grow annually.

In 1964, CBC started with four employees. Today, CBC employs 378 people at its Dayton headquarters and an additional 134 nationwide. To support this growth, CBC/CTS is currently expanding its facilities in downtown Dayton.

According to Dr. Judith E. Woll, CEO and Medical Director of CBC/CTS, “even though the organization has changed significantly in the course of 40 years, saving and enhancing lives through blood transfusions and tissue transplants remains the basis of what CBC/CTS does and why it exists.”

Dr. Ludolph H. van der Hoeven, Co-Founder of CBC shared this thought on the occasion of CBC’s 40th anniversary, “generous gifting by the community when prevailed upon, and that wonderful willingness of all the blood donors to give their blood for someone they don’t know without asking for anything in return …built this Dayton GEM.”

In 1986, CBC started the tissue bank, first known as Dayton Regional Tissue Bank. In the 1990’s, the Dayton Regional Tissue Bank changed its name to Community Tissue Services to reflect the broadening of CTS’ territory. Today, CTS has operations in seven states.

Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services (CBC/CTS), an independent, not-for-profit organization, is ISO 9001:2000 Certified. Community Blood Center is the sole provider of blood components to twenty-five hospitals in the Miami (Ohio) and Whitewater (Indiana) Valleys. Blood collection branches are operated in Dayton, Springfield, Middletown, Hamilton, and Richmond, Indiana. Community Tissue Services serves the public through procurement, processing and distribution of human tissue donations used for transplantation. Community Tissue Services is comprised of seven regional offices: Dayton, Ohio (Corporate Headquarters); Fort Worth, Texas; Fresno, California; Indianapolis, Indiana; Portland, Oregon; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Toledo, Ohio with satellite offices in Boise, Idaho and Medford, Oregon.

For more information about Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services, please visit www.cbccts.org.

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