This is an excellent place to donate blood. The staff are friendly, the snacks are top-notch, and…read morethose doing longer donations have a TV screen at their seat. It is conveniently located near many workplaces as well.

I've had positive experiences donating blood here. The staff are fast and friendly and they're…read morenever had a problem getting an IV in. I donate whole blood and the whole process takes an hour from checking in to finish. I recommend completing the Rapidpass online to save some time. Once you check in you wait in the waiting area for your name to be called. Then they take you into a back room and ask some of the same questions as the Rapidpass. Next, they do a fingerstick to check your hemoglobin and get a full set of vitals (pulse, blood pressure, temperature). After donating blood, they offer you snacks and sometimes a free shirt. The only downside is that parking can be tough to find. I recommend coming on a Sunday when it's less busy and to get the free meter parking.

This morning I was recertified with Sam. What a great, easy, and painless experience! I need to be…read moreCPR certified for work and I always dread the 4 hours long class about something Ive been trained in for almost 10 years. Save Life offers a certification through American Red Cross in a blended class format: online portion in the comfort of your own home and then hands-on on location. I got to say, the online portion was actually kind of fun :) Way better than sitting in a room for hours dozing of. Sam is wonderful. Thorough in his instruction but does it in a fun manner. He offers 1 on 1 (which is what I did), group, business, or in home training. I feel confident that if I needed to, I could safely and effectively perform CPR/AED and first aid. I recommend his services to anyone looking to get certified for the first time or recertified.

From the owner: Save Life Boston provides certification training in Adult & Child CPR / AED / First Aid for…read moreindividuals and organizations. Our primary form of training is at our location in Charlestown with some limited on site offerings. For on site training, contact us for more details.

Skills part was simple and helpful. Not super stressful like some ACLS classes can be.read more

DANGEROUS: I'm registered nurse who has taken many BLS/CPR courses over the years. I've never had…read morean instructor that even came close to being as incompetent and honestly at times, outright negligent with the life saving information and techniques he was providing. . At the start of the class the instructor passed around a stack of certification forms that had already been filled out and signed by instructor as passing. The instructional videos were shown on a 19 inch monitor located on a table in a corner at the far end of the meeting space. With 22 attendees in the room. Of course the AHA and CPR Boston laughed at me when I asked for refund. Said since I had already claimed my e-card, if I wanted refund I could send email request and that would invalidate my certification.

Awesome ACLS class, and great value…read more I had to do ACLS training for work, and my medical school quoted me $310 for a single-day session. For around half the price of this, I registered for the CPR Boston class at Carney Hospital held over two sessions. The instructors were engaging and knowledgeable, and made the class enjoyable and fun. If it's your first time it's helpful to study beforehand and know all the algorithms, and then enjoy the high-yield lectures and the hands-on practice. The sessions were on-point and very efficient. If I'm in the Boston area and doing re-certification I would come here again. Do this course!

Extremely unprofessional and unreliable. CPR Certification Boston repeatedly cancels BLS/CPR…read moresessions at the last minute with little notice. Despite canceling sessions themselves, they require clients to reschedule and pay again, and charge a $20 "cancellation fee" when a refund is requested. This is unfair and unacceptable. I do not recommend this business. Seek a more reliable provider that respects your time and money.

The instructor was over an hour late. She was very unorganized and rude. Waste of my timeread more

If you're looking to work hard as a volunteer, the American Red Cross Food Pantry is the place…read more Especially on days when they're distributing food to clients. I was here on a Wednesday morning. Including the other group of volunteers (that my group didn't know) I'd say there were about 25 of us. So if you're looking for a big group activity, distribution day is your ticket. And for the the 4ish hours that we were there, I think we were busy about 98% of the time.. which for those frequent volunteers out there.. isn't always the case on site. Just a little background, the food pantry is in Roxbury. Easily reachable by T or tons of buses. From their website, it says their clients include "senior citizen immigrants, single parents, families in transition, low-income families, homeless individuals, and those living with HIV." Those that qualify can come in for groceries once a month if they meet the USDA guidelines. They must present an ID for each member of the household. Being curious, I checked the USDA website and interestingly enough, post college and pre - full time job I could have qualified for food assistance. Hmm.. We arrived around 8 AM and the day started off with packing "wet bags". Those coming in for food get a wet bag (veggies/salad/etc.), a dry bag (cereal/pasta/Slim Jims/etc), a can bag (more veggies/tomato sauce/etc), and a protein (that day it was beef and whole turkeys for families of 2 or more). Families with babies may also qualify for baby food but everyone pretty much gets the same thing. Later on, I was in the distributing line. Clients check in to the computer and then they come over with a laminated card stating how many family members they have. So of course, the more family members.. the more bags. It can get a bit hectic and it takes some coordination but you get the hang of it. After 12PM, is lock down. Things get put away and the place gets a good sweeping. It was a very interesting experience. The people walking in didn't seem like they needed "assistance". It was generally a diverse population with mostly minorities but they weren't dressed in a certain way, a few had cars, and one guy was listening to an iPod. One of the coordinators said that people would come in and say that they just lost their job earlier that week or this little bit of groceries is what gets them by. Many come every month without fail. In these difficult times, I can definitely see how a few days of groceries can make all the difference. Especially for a family. The coordinators said they saw a record number of people this Thanksgiving. We actually served 400 people that day (and that doesn't include the 1-9+ family members they were picking up food for). So as you can see, every hour of your time can make a world of difference. You can volunteer by yourself or with a group. OR you can run a food drive at your school or job. See the website for details and contacts.

Wow! I had a GREAT volunteer experience here. I went on a Wednesday morning from 8:30a-12 with…read moreBoston Cares. It's (the Red Cross Food Pantry) one of the most efficiently run, friendly, "helping" organizations I've seen. They get the people in and out QUICKLY, and with bags of NICE, QUALITY foods, not just some old beat up cans and a bag of beans. The Red Cross Staff is wonderful, and they will have something for you to do- be it helping to distribute bags of groceries, assisting with line control, packing bags, etc. They begin ON TIME, and end ON TIME If you need assistance, this is also a GREAT place to come. Not a lot of hassle, just basic stuff to be sure you need services, you're treated with friendliness and dignity, and as mentioned, you don't get crapola, you get GOOD, healthy food. In order to feed as many people as possible, you can only come once a month. 5 STARS! BRAVO, Red Cross!

When, they call ,,, does their caller ID say American Red Cross?…read more Their marketing blanket,,, kept me warm in the cold... They should send you a text message and say we don't know who's calling us all those robocalls are driving us crazy... I would recommend that they send you a text message first to identify themselves because most of the people who contacted me from the American Red Cross which WERE blank number... No ID info... If I do not know U... I do not answer.