You don’t have to needle Chris Sharples into giving blood. He already gave at the office.

The Rochester resident and Southcoast Health System electrician bares his veins four to five times a year for the needle and has donated a staggering nine gallons of blood over the past 17 years.

“I just keep doing it. Being at a hospital makes it easy,” said Sharples, a Southcoast employee for 32 years. “It’s good for you. It’s kind of like an oil change.”

The New Bedford native said he started giving blood when he first took the job.

“I stopped for a while. I don’t know why,” he said. But since 1995, it’s become a regular habit.

Sharples said he has given blood for family and friends who needed it, but doesn’t need a specific occasion to donate.

“A couple of months will go by and I’ll say, ‘Oh jeez, it’s time to donate.’ I’m due again soon.”

Sharples encourages people to give and said sometimes it works, but there are a lot of people too afraid of needles to give a pint.

“It’s a little pinch, that’s all,” he said. “There’s nothing to fear. It’s painless, and if you really think about it, you’re helping somebody.”

By donating through the Southcoast Health System, Public Information Officer & New Media Specialist Stephanie Poyant said people can be assured that their donations will stay local.

“All of the blood that’s collected stays in the system,” she said. “Whatever we don’t get through donations, we have to then purchase.”

Southcoast currently uses more than 16,000 pints of blood annually and must purchase approximately 10,000 of those from the Red Cross and other blood banks.

Poyant said there are incentives each month for people to give, such as a free YMCA membership, a pound of Dunkin Donuts coffee or Bay Sox tickets.

Southcoast employees also get some perks, including an extra vacation day for three donations in 18 months.

“It’s a great incentive, but that’s not why I do it at all,” said Sharples. “It doesn’t matter to me as long as it’s helping someone.”

For more information on donating blood and local blood drives, visit http://southcoast.org/bloodbank/.