A local Erie non-profit received a brand new Ford Transit vehicle to kick off the Erie Auto Show.
The Erie Ford dealer donated the new truck to the Community Blood Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania.
2026 Erie Auto Show kicks off at Bayfront Convention Center
The giveaway was part of the Ford Friendship Express program through which local Erie Ford dealers donate new cars to community non-profits.
The Community Blood Bank serves as the sole provider of blood and blood products to seventeen hospitals and seven medical evacuation sites across Pennsylvania and New York.
The bank said it will use this as a vehicle to help set up blood drives at various locations.
“So specifically like high schools, colleges, some businesses, so we load all of our equipment onto this and then when we get there, unload it all, set it up, host the blood drive, and load it all back in,” said Dee Rosenthal, the blood bank’s executive director.
Rosenthal said they always saw the given away vehicles on the road, but to actually be the recipient of one is something the bank never could have imagined.
The Community Blood Bank recently got a mobile blood bank to assist in its blood donation efforts.
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