Blood Drive: Saving Lives One Bag at a Time

Daniel Caccavale

On October 25^th and 26^th, anyone who passed through Hillwood Commons may have noticed a large table set up and a divider separating half of the seating areas. This was due to the blood drive, which took place right behind the curtains. Anyone who wanted to participate in the event only had to fill out a short questionnaire and do a quick finger prick test.  Then, they went into the donating area. According to the American Red Cross website, for every one pint collected, three lives are saved.

Aneudy Emiliano, a junior accounting major, donated during the drive. “It was nice to be part of it. It was nice to help out,” she said.   This was the feeling of most of those who donated.

In charge of the event was the Assistant Director of the Office of Student Life and Leadership Development Fernando Mendoza. “We collected 237 pints during the two-day drive, which brings our 2011 total to 605 pints collected.  This is an all time high. We had well over 50 student volunteers come out to the blood drive, representing student clubs, greek organizations, RAs, resident students and commuter students. This same drive in October 2010 collected 195 pints, so we had a pretty significant increase. In 2010, we collected only 485 pints of blood, so our jump in pints-collected this year is staggering. This is all due to the commitment of the captains, student volunteers, staff and administrators on campus. We also added a few smaller drives over the past summer.”

Along with the satisfaction of saving lives, donors received their choice of a t-shirt or a voucher for a free six-inch foot-long sandwich at the Hillwood Subway. Along with these two gifts, new systems have been put into place.  Anyone who has donated four times in a year will receive a water bottle from Student Life and Leadership Development. A brand new system that is also in place to help bring in donors is called the Gallons Card. This is something new for all freshmen on campus.  If they donate eight times during their four years at Post and get the card punched each time, the donor is invited to a banquet to thank them for their donations.

The success of the first blood drive of this semester will hopefully continue at the upcoming one on December 7^th, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the Hillwood Pioneer Room. There are typically two or three a semester, so if you would like to donate, keep an eye out for upcoming events.