Blood drives haven't really been in service for the last 15 months, but people are coming together to meet the growing need as they open again.

Family friends of 5-year-old Owen Feola -- who is battling leukemia -- held a blood drive at the Thornwood Fire House Friday, to help increase donations to the New York Blood Center.

The organization, which services 150 hospitals in the tri-state, has hit hard times collecting blood because of the pandemic when donors stayed away.

Llaura Hernandez says pre-pandemic, they'd routinely help coordinate 500 blood drives across the region every month. Now it's closer to 100.

"You have high schools and colleges not hosting blood drives. You have the business population not hosting blood drives. It's a snowball effect that leads us to the current blood state of emergency that we're in," she said.