On the American Red Cross website it stated that “every two seconds someone in the U.S needs blood.” It also went into to say that “more than 38,000 blood donations are needed everyday.”
American Red Cross also stated on their website that, “currently only 3 out of 100 people donate blood.” That means that about 3% of people are donating blood.
American Red Cross teamed up with Northeast for one of the annual blood drives that took place Lifelong Learning Center. The blood drive was held from 9am to 3pm Wednesday.
Stefanie Mundil, Student Health Coordinator and Instructor on campus helped out with this event. Stefanie is the advisor for the Healthy Hawks, a group that is dedicated to helping students have a healthier lifestyle. Stefanie and her group help with events on campus and this was Stefanie’s fifth year helping with the blood drive.
The turnout was just as they expected and were thankful for all the students that came to show their support and donate blood. Most the donors were students from Northeast Campus.
The blood drive was open to not only faculty and students, but also to the community. However, most of their turnout was students on the campus.
Northeast has four blood drives a year and they are evenly spread out so that everyone can donate at each blood drive. There is a minimum amount of days that is needed in between donations to re-cooperate.
The donors received a sticker and snacks for donating blood at the blood drive. The most important part of all was the satisfaction of knowing that they may have just saved a life.
Nursing students also helped out in the Cantina, a place set up with snacks and drinks for donors. The nursing students would walk the donors from where they gave blood to the cantina where they would have time to relax.
They would watch over the donor to make sure that there was no complications from donating blood. After they rested for a little bit and someone checked them over, they were free to go on with their day.
The next blood drive will be on December 7th, and they will be giving out t-shirts to the first hundred people that donate blood.
Donating blood is not the only way someone can support the cause, donating time to volunteer is also another good way to show support. Nursing student volunteer their time to help with the blood drive, but they are always looking for willing bodies to help. From advertising/promoting to helping on the day of, there is a lot that can be done to help blood donation numbers to rise.
Also helping prepare and to prevent emergencies and disasters is a great way to help the American Red Cross and Northeast Community College. By going to: http://www.redcross.org/ you can find out what you can do to support victims and help with emergencies. This website also has very good information about donating blood or time to the American Red Cross.