During a time of year when most people are busy buying presents to give their loved ones, one of the most basic needs can be overlooked. Blood.

The Surry and Yadkin County Red Cross organizations are trying to help the vital gift for which demand increases over the holiday's.

Both groups will be holding several blood drives over the next few weeks and have already been working toward providing people with the blood they need to survive.

The Surry County Red Cross will hold a blood drive at Wal-Mart in Elkin today from noon until 4:30 p.m. and at Northern Hospital of Surry County from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

Ashley Mills with the Surry County Red Cross said blood donations usually drop during this season of giving. "Unfortunately people are busy," Mills said. "They are shopping. They aren't thinking about giving blood. Maybe they are travleing."

Mills said one factor is many people are out of work, which increases the number of elective surgeries, increasing the need for donated blood. "This time of year the donations do go down, but unfortunately, the need goes up. So we usually get into shortages around the holidays," Mills said.

The Tri-County Sertoma Club sponsored a blood drive at the Elkin Rescue Squad Monday. Mills said the drive collected 33 units of blood.

Mills said the Wal-Mart drive is usually a success. "The one that we have at Wal-Mart is a good steady drive," she said. "A lot of times people will plan their shopping around giving blood. We hope especially now through Jan. 6 because we'll be giving t-shirts to the donors."

Mills said Mount Pleasant Baptist Church will be sponsoring a blood drive Sunday, Dec. 30 from 12:30 until 5:30 p.m. She said the church always provides a good turnout.

"Mount Pleasant is a very solid sponosr and they always have a great response form their congregation," she said. "It really just depends on the sponsor and how dedicated they are."

Thursday the Yadkin County Red Cross held a blood drive at the Yadkinville Rescue Squad. Bobby Goins with the Red Cross said donations drop during Christmas, but the turnout in Yadkinville was exceptional. "It gets awful slow," he said. "But this looks great today in here. Usually people don't have time. After Christmas it picks back up. A lot of times schools are out of class so it does it drops off. A lot of people will postpone surgeries and things until after the first of the year because of Christmas."

Goins said all blood types are needed but especially Type-O because of its universal donor properties.

Mills, who has been working with the Surry Red Cross for five years, said she likes her job because she feels like she can make a difference.

"The difference in this job and other jobs is that i can go home everyday and say that i have helped save someones life," she said. "That is a big responsibility that I take very seriously. So I do all I can to try and get people to give blood. It really could be the difference between someone being able to have another Christmas."