Cricket and Community Blood Center Team Up to Recruit Blood Donors at Area High Schools
DAYTON, OH – August 21, 2006 – The Dayton branch of Cricket Communications, Inc, a leading provider of unlimited wireless services, and the Community Blood Center have formed a partnership to present the 2006 – 2007 edition of the Blood Center’s annual high school blood drive.
The program will include blood drives at approximately 100 schools in 15 counties, and normally results in the registration of over 7,000 high school donors. Inspired by the popular teen pastime of text messaging, don8 bl%d is the theme of this year’s high school program.
Cricket’s participation is a result of the Cricket Cares program. Cricket staff will be present at all of the high school blood drives with items to give away and fun activities, including appearances by the popular Cricket Hummer. Cricket is providing $10,000 to assist with the cost of producing t-shirts to be given to all blood drive participants. Along with the Community Blood Center and Cricket, RadioOne and Z-93 FM are also participating in this effort, airing public service announcements about the blood drive and providing information on their Web sites.
“We are really excited about this partnership,” said Tracy Morgan, community education specialist for Community Blood Center. “As a result of Cricket’s participation, we anticipate at least a
10-percent increase in donations during the don8 bl%d drive.”
High school donors must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. Parental consent is not required by law; however, individual high schools may require parental consent to donate blood during the blood drive. Select schools in the following 15 counties will be participating in this program:
Indiana
Randolph, Union Wayne
Ohio
Butler, Champaign, Clark, Clinton, Darke, Greene, Logan, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, Shelby, Warren
About Cricket®
Cricket is a simple and affordable mobile phone service providing customers and local businesses with flat-rate, unlimited service over a high-quality, all-digital wireless network. Designed for customers under-served by traditional communications companies, Cricket is the pioneer of unlimited anytime minutes with no long-term contract or credit check required. Plus, Cricket offers customers access to a variety of feature-rich mobile applications such as unlimited text messaging, picture messaging and more. For more information, please visit www.mycricket.com. Cricket is a business of Leap Wireless International, Inc. [NASDAQ: LEAP], headquartered in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com.
About Cricket Cares
Cricket Cares is an expression of Cricket’s commitment to giving back to the communities in which it operates. “Cricket employees are empowered to make decisions about getting involved in local charitable, educational and wellness-oriented activities,” said Garth Brandwein, Area General Manager for Cricket. “We feel strongly about our corporate responsibility to make a difference in our community.” Through the Cricket Cares program, Cricket is helping local charities and nonprofit organizations achieve their goals. Cricket welcomes inquiries from charities and other organizations regarding the possibility of a Cricket Cares partnership.
About Community Blood Center
Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services (CBC/CTS), an independent, not-for-profit organization, is ISO 9001:2000 Certified. Community Blood Center is the sole provider of blood components to twenty-five hospitals in the Miami (Ohio) and Whitewater (Indiana) Valleys. Community Tissue Services serves the public through recovery, processing and distribution of human tissue donations used for transplantation. Community Tissue Services is comprised of eight regional offices: Dayton, Ohio (Corporate Headquarters); Fort Worth, Texas; Fresno, California; Indianapolis, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; and Toledo, Ohio with satellite offices in Boise, Idaho, Medford, Oregon and Connersville, Indiana. For more information about Community Blood Center/Community Tissue Services, visit www.cbccts.org.
