By Janelle Hill
Long Island Blood Services organize blood drives at every campus in Long Island.
For the last 10 years, the University Human Resources office has coordinated at least two blood drives every year, one during the fall semester and one during the spring semester. The service collects over 800 pints of blood a year from University students and faculty.
In the United States, someone needs a blood transfusion every two to three seconds. Ninety-five percent of all Americans will need a blood transfusion at some point in their lives. Only four people out of 100 who are able to donate blood do so.
In addition, on May 31, 2002, the Long Island Blood Services lost 25 percent of the blood supply due to new Food and Drug Administration regulations concerning Mad Cow disease. The blood supply also needs to be replenished constantly. Blood products have a short shelf life, ranging from five to 42 days.
The main reason why blood drives are held at local universities is simple: concentrated donors.
“Everyone is in one place,” Account Manager of Long Island Blood Services Denise Johnson said. “It’s very easy to get people to come to one central location than to get them to make an appointment to go to a donor room to donate. Convenience is probably the easiest and simplest answer.”
“People should donate because there is no way of manufacturing blood without someone putting their arm out and extracting a pint of blood from them,” Johnson said. “[Without donors] people could not get the blood that they need for operations, for replacement after chemotherapy, for trauma situations or for transplants. There’s no way of manufacturing blood and that’s the only way we can get it, by a donor coming out and donating.”
The University awarded the first 100 donors $100 on their meal plans for this week’s blood drive.
“It’s helping out people in need, and it can help save a life,” first-time donor Ross Rosen said.
Students like Shannon Peterson opted to donate due to a personal connection to someone in need of blood.
“I’ve never donated, but I have a family member who had internal bleeding and needed a lot of blood just a few weeks ago, so that’s why I came out,” Peterson said.
Members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity highly encouraged their pledges to make a contribution.
“We actually said if they didn’t give blood, they still had to go over and help in some way,” fraternity member Matthew Brotz said. Some students could not donate, because they did not meet the weight minimum of 110 pounds, they were afraid of needles or they had recently traveled out of the country.