BENTONVILLE — Blood drives are taking place every day to try and keep up with the area’s demand.

Jennifer Loper’s been donating blood for decades.

“I try to come every eight weeks whenever they come,” she said.

It is a good thing she does. Her blood type is O negative.

“I feel like I’m doing something good for the community. I’ve got O-negative blood and they harass me if I don’t come. They call me and say, we need your blood,” Loper said.

She helps fill a huge demand for blood in the area.

“It takes, on average, 200 blood donations a day to meet the needs of the 44 area hospitals,” Community Blood Center of the Ozarks media relations representative Michelle Teter said.

CBCO is responsible for supplying all of them with this important life-saving medicine.

“It’s not something that can be synthetically made or that can be produced at a hospital. It’s got to come from a person,” Teter said.

That’s what makes people like loper incredibly valuable.

“They’ll notify me who got my blood and what it went for and everything so it’s kind of a nice feeling,” Loper said.

To learn more about how to donate, click here.