Between the stickers, the chips and the cookies, you can call Gail Cohen “a canteen maven.”

Cohen is a volunteer with the New York Blood Center. 

"We like to give it, you know, bring the snacks to them so they remain seated,” she said. “So their body acclimates after they finish donating blood."

Cohen is a constant presence at blood drives. 

She got started with the center as a donor. She donated her first pint of blood in 1984 when she was a student at Brooklyn College.

"People are sick,” Cohen said. “People have premature babies. And the blood that might be donating one day will help save someone the next day."

The Coney Island resident continued to donate.

Then one day, she saw a volunteer assisting at a blood drive. So she decided she could help the center even more.

"I emulated what she did,” Cohen said. “And now it seems like I'm one of the veteran volunteers."

Fast forward, Cohen now volunteers five to seven times a month. She welcomes donors and monitors them after they're all bandaged up.

"Sometimes people start talking to me and they lower their head and I know they're not feeling well,” Cohen said. “So I have an initial response. I'm supposed to shout ‘assistance' and the staff come over."

Still a constant donor herself, Cohen started exclusively giving platelets in 2016.

"It's important because their shelf life is much shorter than whole blood. So I give liquid gold."

Platelets are prized by the blood center for the way they can help cancer patients, accident victims and patients with blood disorders.

Cohen said it doesn't take much to help a fellow New Yorker. 

"It's just a selfless thing that anyone could do,” she said. “I mean, it just maybe would take an hour if people come to a mobile drive, which I volunteer at many times a month and it saves three lives.”

For donating blood and helping others do the same, Gail Cohen is our New Yorker of the Week.