Gainesville listed mobile blood drives after Texoma merger
City calendars advertised donation buses at Gainesville facilities as Carter BloodCare assumed the regional blood center’s services, including Cooke County.
Gainesville’s 2026 calendar offered residents opportunities to give blood close to home, listing Carter BloodCare buses at city facilities in April and June. The scheduled collections followed the merger of Texoma Regional Blood Center into Carter BloodCare, documented in Grayson County records. City calendar, county resolution.
For the April 16 Medal of Honor Blood Drive, the city advertised collection buses outside the Civic Center and said the arrangement carried over from the previous year. Its June 18 Battle of the Badges listing designated a Carter BloodCare bus at the Steven K. Fleming Public Safety Facility, with donations scheduled between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Both records describe planned events. April event, June event.
The regional merger took effect Jan. 1, 2026, with Carter BloodCare remaining as the corporation responsible for the combined operation, according to Grayson County’s resolution. Carter BloodCare’s December 2025 announcement said the change would bring no break in service for Sherman or the surrounding service area, which includes Cooke, Grayson and Fannin counties. Resolution, merger announcement.
That announcement placed the organization’s daily need at roughly 1,600 donors across its service area. It described mobile collections and permanent donor centers working within a combined Texas network supplying hospitals and other medical facilities. Carter BloodCare announcement.
Carter BloodCare’s stated need across its service area
Reported in December 2025 for the organization’s service area, not Gainesville alone.
Storage limits make replenishment a continuing task. Under Carter BloodCare’s published guidance, red cells remain usable in storage for no more than six weeks; platelets have a week. Those limits restrict how far into the future a collection can support demand. Blood-storage guidance.
Platelets have a shorter storage life
Red cells
Can be stored for up to 42 days.
Platelets
Can be stored for only seven days.
Winter weather interrupted Texoma collections earlier this year. In a Feb. 4 statement, Carter BloodCare reported that ice had caused a temporary donor-center closure and canceled area drives. Many blood types had fallen below a day’s supply at the time, the organization said. February statement.
The Texoma operation brought decades of regional service into the merger. Carter BloodCare’s 2026 service manual dates its predecessor’s founding to 1975 and identifies the same three counties as its territory. Service manual.
Carter BloodCare’s own history reaches back to Dallas’ Wadley Research Institute and Blood Bank, established in 1951. The present organization began Jan. 1, 1998, when BloodCare of Dallas merged with Carter Blood Center of Fort Worth, according to its service manual. Organizational history.
For donors using a permanent collection site, Carter BloodCare Texoma’s location page lists a temporary address of 1930 N. Grand Avenue in Sherman, effective Aug. 12, 2026. Texoma donor-center listing.
Join the conversation