Summer is traditionally a slow time for blood donations, but this year with unemployment hitting new highs and the economy in recession even fewer people are giving the gift of life.

Nonetheless the Rhode Island Blood Center has been able to keep up with the demand for now, supplying on average 280 pints of blood everyday to Rhode Island’s hospitals.

Frank Prosnitz, the center’s manager of community development in a recent interview said that donations drop off because schools are closed and church drives are not as prevalent. Also, at this time many business drives are down.

Church and school drives account for 11 to 12 percent of annual blood donations.

But this year the blood center is also feeling the impact of the recession.

“People give blood when they feel good about themselves, not when the economy is bad and they don’t have a job,” Prosnitz said.

In order to sustain the flow of blood donations the center is conducting 12 to 16 blood drives every day.

In an effort to heighten awareness the center publishes a newsletter and has a television show.

RIBC has been meeting their goal to provide “the gift of life” since May 1, 1979 when it was created as the central facility for the collection and distribution of blood.

The center collects between 90,000 and 100,000 pints of blood per year. In the last 30 years the center has collected 2,076,000 blood products from more then 443,000 donors. Most donors have donated more than once, some even hundreds of times. Prosnitz has donated upwards of five gallons.

“That’s twenty-five bottles of wine,” he says with a laugh. As a hobby, Prosnitz makes wine.

Prosnitz’s aim is to increase the segment of the population who donate blood. He notes that only 5 percent of the 40 percent of the population capable of donating blood do so.

Donating blood takes about 45 minutes, excluding transportation time. Blood drives are held regularly at Aquidneck Island, Warwick, Providence, Woonsocket and South County. More information including locations, times and directions is available at www.ribc.com.