It's always a good time to roll up your sleeves and give blood, especially this week.

Kentucky is competing with Tennessee and the 36th annual Big Blue Crush.

You can give blood at any of the eight Kentucky Blood Center donor locations and there are also mobile drives underway.

Eric Lindsey with the Kentucky Blood Center says donations made with KBC go directly to local patients at more than 70 hospitals around the state.

We have seen folks over the past couple of years since the pandemic where we're starting to see some donors that come back that had for obvious health and safety reasons, had, you know, fallen out of the hat with the pandemic, who had, you know, just had not donated.

We were seeing some encouraging signs that folks are coming back, but we're still not to the point where we want it to be still up to the point where we can feel good about where people's lives are at state.

We want to make sure that our our blood supply is not okay or good.

We want to make sure it's great.

We want to make sure that the blood is always there.

So as it relates specifically to Big Blue Crush, we know this is an event that brings out people that, you know, that maybe this is the only time they donate a year or maybe this this motivates them to donate for the first time.

Whatever it is that motivates you to donate.

We're just we're hopeful to get you back here and start donating.

So if this is the event, if it's the competition versus Tennessee, if it's the t shirt, they're really popular with, their donors motivate you to come out or just you.

You've forgotten about it and you're seeing this on on this interview, on the news for the first time and it motivates you.

Hey, whatever it is, we're just happy to have you have your back.

We just we need more people to continue to donate in order to serve our 70 plus hospitals.

And we know that the holidays are an especially crucial time.

The big Blue Crush contests last through Friday.

Kentucky leads the series with 26, with Tennessee, 2214 with one tie.

And Kentucky has won three of the last four years, including last year.

Let's do it again.