MDA to be on high alert for holidays

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
After consulting with security authorities, Magen David Adom has employees and volunteers to be under a B Alert - the second highest - during Memorial Day for the Fallen and Independence Day. More than 700 ambulances manned by a full complement of paramedics and medics will be on duty. The level of alertness is unprecedented for these national days. There will be ambulances at all military cemeteries and memorial sites, as well as at mass entertainment events, parks, camping spots and other areas visited by large numbers of people. The blood-supply, ambulance and first-aid organization also asks the public to donate blood, as fewer take time off during holidays to do this good deed. Call 1-800-400-101 or see the www.mdais.org Web site for more information. Meanwhile, MDA said that Zichron Ya'acov residents will give blood on Memorial Day for the 14th year in a row as a symbol of their wish to save lives. The group initiated the tradition and invited more to join them. Shimon Redlich, honorary president of the Voluntary Blood Donors Organization, said that since 1996, its members have donated 2,976 pints of blood on Memorial Day. "Let us not forget our dear ones who fell in war to protect our security. We have the ability to donate blood in their memory and to save lives, as they gave their lives for us," he said. Tuesday's blood collection event will be held in the city's Restro Bar on the pedestrian mall between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.