SPANISH FORT, Ala. — The spirit of giving is alive and well on the Eastern Shore if Spanish Fort High School’s recent blood drive sponsored by the Key Club is any indication.

With 95 units collected in one day, the organization did not eclipse the record it set in 2008 with 105 units collected, but organizers with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers in Daphne are more than content with the results.

“Seventy-five is the target we set for the blood drive at Gulf Shores High School, so 95 is extraordinary,” said LifeSouth Assistant Regional Manager Shelley Asmus.

Indeed, with the holiday travel season in full swing, Asmus said high schools and college campuses present the most immediate opportunities for offsetting blood donation shortages.

“Obviously, increased travel — and the increase in drunk driving among other things —affects the need for blood supplies, and the high schools in this area always step up,” Asmus said, noting while all blood types are in demand, the most critical needs at the moment are for O-negative and B-negative.

“We’re back-ordered on both right now,” he said.

Key Club member Jackie Smith, 15, said about 70 students had signed up in advance of the Nov. 5 blood drive, but there was a strong push to outperform the 2008 results.

“We hold the record right now, and we’re hoping if we keep this an annual thing we can hold onto (the record),” Smith said.

Asmus said LifeSouth is also negotiating to host campus drives once per semester instead of only once per year.

In addition to school settings, are movie theaters hosting cinema-themed drives have also helped LifeSouth boost its collections in recent weeks.

Premiere Cinema at Spanish Fort’s Eastern Shore Centre, for instance, attracted 23 donors in conjunction with its Zombie Walk to promote the release of the comedy/adventure flick “Zombieland.”

A similar event at the Rave in Daphne was set to coincide with the release of the latest in the vampire phenomenon, “New Moon,” but Asmus said a goal of only 12 units had been set. It was unclear at press time how many units the “Twilight”-inspired event attracted.

“Fortunately for us, a lot of people see donating blood as a way to be philanthropic this time of year, and it certainly is an economic way to give back without hurting your wallet,” Asmus said.