Notice: In need of all blood types.
Notice: In need of all blood types. 
Notice: In need of all blood types.
75 Years of People Giving. 75 Years of People Living.
Kern County had no community blood bank. Blood had to be shipped in from Los Angeles and San Francisco, often taking a full day to arrive far too slow when lives were on the line. Local physicians, including Doctors Coker, Crawley, and Varney, began meeting to push for a nonprofit, community-based blood bank.
Kern Community Blood Bank is officially incorporated as a California public-benefit nonprofit, with one job: protect the local blood supply so patients in Kern County aren’t left waiting.
In 1951, Members of the Kern County Medical Society turned to fellow member C. Elmer Houchin, asking for help securing a permanent site. Through the Houchin Foundation, he donated land on G Street in downtown Bakersfield and an endowment, in memory of his mother, Sarah Alice Houchin, who needed blood transfusions while fighting cancer. The blood bank opened its doors there in April 1951, finally allowing Kern to rely on its own community, not distant cities.
Within a year, the organization’s name was formally changed from Kern Community Blood Bank to Houchin Community Blood Bank, in recognition of the family whose gift made the vision real.
In those early years, donations were collected mostly in glass bottles at the G Street center. There are no mobile buses yet drives happen on folding tables in churches, workplaces, and community halls. When an emergency hit, staff literally called donors at home, sometimes late at night. Recognition clubs like the “10 Gallon Donor Club” help build a culture where repeat donors are local heroes.
As we look ahead, our purpose stays beautifully simple: to be there when someone in Kern County needs blood, and not a minute later. The work has become more advanced, the buildings larger, the technology smarter, but at the center of it all is the same promise: a steady, reliable blood supply for the patients who are counting on us.
We are committed to caring for our donors just as carefully as we care for our patients. Every visit, every rolled-up sleeve, every first-time donor who walks through our doors is part of the lifeline that keeps this community strong. We will keep working to make donation easier, more welcoming, and more accessible, so that giving feels less like an errand and more like what it truly is an act of generosity that changes lives.
To our community, we remain your local blood center, rooted in Kern County and dedicated to the people who live here. We will continue to show up in neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and places of worship, building the diverse and dependable donor base our hospitals and medical centers need. When the unexpected happens, we want Kern County to know: your blood bank is ready.
And to our donors — past, present, and future — thank you. For decades, you’ve stepped forward in quiet moments and in times of crisis, making Houchin part of Kern County’s history and its safety net. Every unit collected is a story you helped rewrite. As we enter our 75th year and beyond, we carry that trust with us, determined to honor it every single day.
Because when you give, people live — today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.