Service organizations hold annual blood drive

Many of Georgia College & State University’s students, faculty and staff celebrated Halloween by giving blood.

The G.I.V.E Center, in collaboration with Gamma Sigma Sigma service sorority, held the annual American Red Cross blood drive, Wednesday.

Rachel Bliss, the student coordinator for blood drives within the G.I.V.E. Center, states that although the blood drive ran from 10a.m until 4p.m. about 109 people signed up to participate.

“We started taking people at ten this morning, but we started setting up at around nine,” Bliss said. “We had 109 people sign up today, and I am not sure how many of those actually ended up giving blood. Each person gives one pint so we probably got around 100 pints.”

Despite participation from GC&SU community, local nurses also attended the event, assisting with the blood drive.

Tricia Wilder, a nurse at the blood drive, states that the participation level for blood drives has increased due to Sept. 11.

“Not as many people gave blood before Sept. 11, but now hopefully this will make people aware,” Wilder said.

Leslie White, GC&SU student, attended the blood drive and feels that it was well worth the wait.

“I showed up at 1p.m. and was told it would be a long time, so I made an appointment and came back at 2:45,” White said. “It was a little bit of a hassle because of my travels recently. Apparently if you go to certain areas that are at risk of malaria,then you can’t give blood.”

Although the blood drive was a major success, Bliss states that due to health reasons, some people were not able to give blood.

“Overall, we were prepared. They set a goal of 65 people and prepare for twice that many. We had 8-9 nurses and about 19 volunteers,” Bliss said. “Some of the major things that can keep people from giving blood is, if they got a tattoo within a year, a piercing within 6 months, are on any antibiotics, or are under 110 pounds. One of my friends actually had to be turned away because she went overseas and had gone to an area where malaria is prevalent”

Though there were precautions, many people were still allowed to give blood with certain medical conditions.

“A lot of people think that if they have some medical condition then they can’t give blood, they need to check and see though, because usually they can, they just don’t know it,” Wilder said.

Rosel Malit, a local nurse, states that giving blood should be something that everyone participates in.

“They can give blood every 56 days, and each time they do they save 3-4 peoples lives,” Malit said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 2 2001. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry