Comic-Con’s 50th
Robert A. Heinlein
Blood Drive in 2026

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Comic-Con’s Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive, San Diego Blood Bank’s largest and longest-running blood drive, returns for its 50th year, with donation areas located in Grand Hall A at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel and at San Diego Blood Bank Donation Centers.

The growth of our blood drive over the years has been phenomenal. The Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive began at San Diego Comic-Con back in 1977 at the El Cortez Hotel. That first year, 148 pints of blood were collected, and as the convention has grown, so has our blood drive. Our 2025 blood drive collected 15,216 pints of blood!

In our long history, a total of 108,420 pints have been donated by Comic-Con attendees, exhibitors, professionals, volunteers, and staff! San Diego Blood Bank estimates that your donations have impacted more than 300,000 lives over the past 49 years of hosting our blood drive!

Robert A. Heinlein’s 1951 novel, Between Planets, helped popularize the phrase “Pay It Forward.” Please make it a point to pay it forward this year and save people’s lives at our 50th Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive. Your donation is desperately needed.

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There are THREE ways to donate!

These appointment links are for donating during the convention at the Manchester Grand Hyatt:

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Donate Monday, July 27 through Monday, August 31

To schedule an appointment at a San Diego Blood Bank location or mobile blood drive in your area,
please call (619) 400-8251 or click HERE
( Link is:  https://www.mysdbb.org/donor/schedules/zip )

Centres de don de la banque de sang de San Diego :

OR, you can make an appointment at any San Diego Blood Bank mobile drive within those 36 days!

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A Brief History of Comic-Con’s
Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive

Pour les amateurs de science-fiction, peu de noms sont aussi prestigieux que celui de Robert A. Heinlein. De Starship Troopers à Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein était le doyen des écrivains de SF. Malheureusement, il ne participait que rarement à des conventions, de sorte que ses lecteurs n'avaient que peu d'occasions de rencontrer le maître en personne.

Then, in the early 1970s, Heinlein had a life-threatening illness and needed many pints of a rare blood type. He felt he owed his life to the donors, so when asked to be a guest at the 1976 Worldcon in his hometown of Kansas City, he agreed—but with one specific stipulation: that he would only sign autographs for people who donated blood.

Thus, longtime Comic-Con committee member Jackie Estrada approached the author with an offer to hold a blood drive in San Diego if he would consent to be a guest. He agreed, and in 1977 Heinlein came to Comic-Con. He and his wife, Ginny, had a great time, and Heinlein even drew a picture for the Sunday morning Art Auction.”David Scroggy [who went on to be a VP at Dark Horse Comics before he retired] was the first blood drive coordinator,” recalls Estrada. “We also had Theodore Sturgeon there signing his book, Some of Your Blood, which he gave to all of the blood donors. We also had entertainment for the people while they were [donating blood]. I remember that Leslie Cabarga played the piano, and C. C. Beck played the guitar. It was a very fun event, and Robert was delighted. We’ve had the blood drive every year since.”

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Une brève histoire de Robert A. Heinlein

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Brève histoire de la banque de sang de San Diego

En 1950, la Banque du sang de San Diego a été créée avec le soutien de la Société médicale du comté de San Diego. La prévoyance et le dévouement des pères fondateurs, le Dr Thomas O'Connell et le Dr Frederick G. Hollander, nous ont conduits à la Banque du sang de San Diego d'aujourd'hui, une organisation connue pour l'excellence de ses services à la communauté.

From 1950 to 1953, annual donations averaged 27,000 pints in San Diego County. In the 1960s, San Diego Blood Bank’s growth continued and so did donations, nearly 40,000 pints were given annually by 1969. In the late 1960s, we were also at the forefront of medical technology when we were one of the first blood banks in California to institute hepatitis screening on all donated blood.

Les années 1970 ont marqué le début d'une ère de développement considérable. Notre siège historique de Hillcrest a ouvert ses portes en 1972 et notre premier site satellite, le North County Donor Center, a ouvert ses portes à Escondido en 1978.

In 1981 we were among the first blood banks in the nation to formalize a designated donor program, which allows patients to select their donors. Our autologous donor program also was put into place more than 30 years ago for patients who wish to pre-deposit their blood for a planned surgery.

By 1986, donations reached 86,000 pints annually and have exceeded 100,000 for many years now. 

One thing that has not changed since the very beginning is the remarkable commitment and selfless spirit of our most vital resource—blood donors. Our entire donor population is solely volunteer and has been since 1974. Some of today’s donors are as young as 17 and nearly half are women. 

San Diego Blood Bank is licensed by the State of California Department of Health Services and by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is a fully accredited member of the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB) and a member of the California Blood Bank Society (CBBS), America’s Blood Centers (ABC), Blood Centers of America (BCA), the Blood Centers of California (BCC), and is the local Cord Blood Registry for the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).