While blood donors play a critical role in maintaining our area's blood supply, volunteers play an equally important role during local blood drives.

"We always say that if you can't give, you can volunteer," said Michele Baehr, executive director of the Red Cross's Eastern Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains Chapter."There are people who cannot donate blood, but you can always help your Red Cross by volunteering."She said there are many opportunities for volunteering. Organizers are needed to set up and coordinate individual blood drives, which can involve securing a location and encouraging people to donate. Others are needed the day of the drive for registration, to help escort donors between stations, and to serve snacks and drinks in the canteen.The training process is relatively quick, and no medical knowledge is required for most volunteer positions.To emphasize the importance of volunteers, Baehr reeled off her chapter's staff list: It includes just three full-time employees. The bulk of the Red Cross's work is done by more than 300 volunteers through the chapter's four counties, which include Wayne, Pike, Monroe and Carbon counties.While many of these volunteers help with blood drives, others help in other ways, including the Red Cross's disaster action team, which responds after emergencies such as a fire to provide immediate assistance to affected families.DAT has also canvassed local neighborhoods to provide smoke alarms."Volunteers make a huge difference. They make what we do possible," Baehr said. "You can work at your leisure. We have some volunteers who only work blood drives, and we have others who are in our office 40 hours per week."For more information on volunteering with the Red Cross, go to

www.redcrossblood.org or call 800-RED-CROSS. For information on volunteering with Miller-Keystone, go to

www.giveapint.org or call 800-B-A-DONOR.