BAY MINETTE — Thomas Hospital in Fairhope and North Baldwin Infirmary in Bay Minette have joined six Mobile County hospitals in a community effort to collect blood from area residents which will be utilized by area residents.

Pam Pace, branch manager for the Gulf Coast District of LifeSouth Community Blood Centers, told Baldwin County Commissioners that offices will open Feb. 1 in Daphne off Merritt Boulevard and at Thomas Hospital between February and March.

“We have been invited into the area by local hospitals to go out in the community and collect blood that stays here,” Pace said. “The difference between us and the American Red Cross is that they are national. The hospitals want community blood that doesn’t leave the area.”

In addition to general donations, blood donors may earmark their blood for relatives, therapeutic needs or build a supply of blood for an upcoming operation, she said.

An initial blood drive is slated Jan. 31 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the commission chambers in the Bay Minette Administration Building.

For more information, call Pace at (251) 776-3096.