The Long Island Blood Services will be at the Knights of Columbus hall at 83 Sea Cliff Avenue in Glen Cove on Tuesday, Oct. 1 from 3:30 to 9 p.m. A delicious roast beef dinner will be served to all those willing to donate. The dinner will be prepared by members of the Knights of Columbus and served by the Columbiettes. The Columbiettes will also prepare home baked desserts.

Anyone from the age of 17 to 75 may participate. Photo identification is required, and it must be 56 days since your last donation.

On May 31 of this year, the last plane from Europe arrived at Kennedy Airport with the last delivery of imported blood from Europe that our nation has been dependent on for the past 30 years.

The FDA has mandated that the United States can no longer import blood from Europe because of the theoretical risk of "Mad Cow" disease. As a consequence, Americans have lost about 25 percent of the blood used in the United States. That means that Long Island will have to replace 130,000 pints of blood a year that it can no longer rely on receiving from Europe. Therefore, it is necessary to make up this shortfall by recruiting people who have never donated even once before to do so now, and ask those who donate only once a year to please donate a second and/or third time.

America must become self-sufficient, Americans must be able to count on each other and Americans must donate blood. United we stand, united we donate.