We blogged yesterday and you may have heard in other local outlets that the Erie Otters are sponsoring a blood drive, which is great. But…it’s the with Central Blood Bank and not the Community Blood Bank, which is housed here in Erie and is the sole supplier of blood for Erie, Warren and several other counties. Our friend and director of marketing at the Community Blood Bank Dan Desrochers sent over a note explaining more about this:

There have been several media reports crediting the upcoming blood drive with the Erie Otters to the Community Blood Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania.

In fact the drive will be conducted by The Central Blood Bank in Pittsburgh, a direct competitor of the Community Blood Bank. Both organizations initials are CBB so that contributes to the confusion.

The Community Blood Bank of NW PA is the ONLY supplier of blood to local hospitals and serves the following Counties EXCLUSIVELY: Erie, Warren, McKean, Elk, Potter in Pennsylvania; and Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties in New York. The Central Blood Bank supplies Crawford county and regions south of that county.

Blood donation is important. We do it, we promote it here as it saves lives, and we commend the Otters for holding a blood drive. What we don’t understand is why they aren’t working with the local blood collector who exclusively serves our region, therefore making the blood you would donate at the Otters drive help people in Erie, Warren and several New York counties, as opposed to Allegheny and other counties. We’d be interested to hear more from the Otters about this.

Moving on…

Six Giant Eagle stores have been approved by the PLCB to begin selling beer, including the store in Harborcreek. Expect beer sales to begin mid-December. We’ll have a Newcastle, or better yet a Brains.

We got a note from the staff at GoErie.com that they’ve made it through the Google review process and the site is no longer being tagged as malware. Good to see this get resolved.

Open up that wallet every time you open tap as the Erie Water Works will be raising rates by about $1.75 a month.

An impressive 1,257 volunteers picked up 72,763 pieces of trash adding up to 19,395 pounds during the seventh Pennsylvania-Lake Erie International Coastal Cleanup, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. The results of the Sept. 19 regional cleanup were announced yesterday at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center.

The parent company of the Quality Market grocery stores, Penn Traffic, has filed for bankruptcy. They plan to keep the local stores open but does plan to sell the grocery part of its business. There are 4 stores in Erie and 2 in Crawford County. Next time you’re near one, check out the logo and tell me that doesn’t look like a number 2 instead of a Q. We call Two-ality.

Sports

Congrats to Erie native Jovon Johnson for making the Canadian Football League all-star team. He plays in Winnipeg.

The Mercyhurst College women’s volleyball team saw its season end with a 3-1 loss to Lock Haven in the first round of the NCAA Atlantic Region Tournament on Thursday.

The NBA Development League Erie BayHawks will host a FanFest Sunday, November 22, at the Millcreek Mall, 1 – 3 pm. Admission is free and open to the public and fans will have their first opportunity to meet the team, get autographs and take photos with the players.

Events

Gannon University’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) will host a fundraiser for a Gannon coach and alumnus whose husband recently died. The fundraiser, a Talent Show to be performed by Gannon’s student-athletes, will begin at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22 in the University’s Hammermill Center, 620 Peach St. The event is open to the general public. Admission is $2 per person and donations will be collected during the event.