Elon students, in collaboration with Elon Volunteers! and the American Red Cross, hosted the Fall Blood Drive on Tuesday, Oct. 29, to collect donations for neighbors in need.
In a time where the American Red Cross is in need of blood donations, Elon students, faculty and staff came together to provide assistance during the Fall 2019 Blood Drive.
Elon student volunteers worked with Elon Volunteers!, the university’s hub for service opportunities on and around campus, to organize the blood drive inside the Moseley Center’s McKinnon Hall Tuesday.
With recent hurricanes forcing the Red Cross to cancel countless blood drives, the organization is in need of an increased number of donations to give to members of the community in need. For that reason, the Red Cross is collecting Power Red donations, which allow donors to safely give two units of red blood cells during one donation while having their plasma and platelets returned to the body. The process is meant to allow donors to give twice the amount of blood in the same amount of time as a standard session.
The students who organized Tuesday’s event say they are proud to raise awareness of such an important issue in the community and urge their peers to take action.
“I think it’s important because it shows that we care, and we are the change that’s going to happen,” said Blair King ’22, one of the blood drive’s student coordinators. “We know people, and we’re in different organizations that can help spread the word around campus.”
Students set a goal of collecting 100 units of blood leading up to the event and had already scheduled 93 appointments before it kicked off at 9 a.m.
“It makes me really happy,” said student coordinator MacKenzie Hahn ’20, who added she hopes to see a continued increase in participation in the future. “As we continue to make donating blood part of the culture at Elon, it makes me really excited. Last spring, we had 80 reservations, and this year we have 93. That amount of growth in a short period of time is really exciting.”
One of the donors to attend Tuesday’s event was Dianne Ford, a recently retired faculty librarian at Elon. Ford said she was happy to see students coordinating the event and even donating blood themselves because she understands the importance of giving blood.
“It’s an easy way to do something good for the community,” she said. “It just takes an hour and you’re done, and you can feel really good about it.”
There are two blood drives planned for the campus in 2020. The Red Cross will return to Elon for the January Blood Drive on Jan. 15 from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Moseley Student Center, and the Spring Blood Drive is scheduled for April 8 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the same location.
For more information about the upcoming blood drives or to find out how to volunteer, visit the American Red Cross website or email blooddrive@elon.edu.