A change in venue has been announced for the blood donor clinic Monday in Steinbach.

Tracy Smith is Director of Donor Relations for Manitoba with Canadian Blood Services. She says the clinic takes place at Steinbach Mennonite Church along Loewen Boulevard. As of Friday afternoon, there were only eight appointments needing to be filled.

Canadian Blood Services has been running two clinics per month in Steinbach the last while and Smith says there has been a wonderful response from the community.

"We are seeing actually more donations coming, which is wonderful," she says.

Smith says by holding two clinics per month, it means donors that have other plans on the regular clinic date, can try to schedule an appointment to give blood at the next clinic.

"This gives people a greater opportunity to donate," she says. "So we are seeing that."

From April to June, 547 units of blood were collected in Steinbach. Smith says this is a lot of blood, but she says they could still use more donors.

Smith notes another advantage in holding two clinics per month is that it allows for better traffic flow and speeds up the process of giving blood.

Meanwhile, she says summer is always a challenging time of year to keep up with patient demand. With people away on holidays or busy with other activities, she understands that donating blood isn't always top of mind. Smith says this is evident in the fact there are more than 100 appointments combined still needing to be filled for the two August clinic dates on the 8th and 22nd.