With a long weekend around the corner, Canada needs blood donations.

A call for 25,000 donations country-wide was put out by Canadian Blood Services last week.

Steve Raizen, territory manager for Manitoba Mobiles, says long weekends are typically a challenging time for collecting blood, and a little extra encouragement for donors is needed.

"It's just the fact that people are busy enjoying their long weekend and less donors are coming in," he says.

Raizen says donations were a little bit lower than expected through the summertime and there is currently a need. They are particularly looking for donors with type O-Negative blood.

In addition to Winnipeg's blood centre on William Avenue, a mobile donor clinic is hitting some Manitoba communities this week as well; it will be in Altona on Thursday and Carmen on Friday, and a clinic will be open in Steinbach on Labour Day.