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Blood drive exceeds goal by 165 pints |
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Tuesday, 02 October 2007 |
 Chad E. Blanton, a senior management major, donates at Thursday’s blood drive. Donors could give blood, plasma, or sign up to donate marrow. Holt Menzies
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by BRITTANY SPENCER
Intern News Reporter
Friendly faces of people donating their time and blood swarmed the Holmes Convocation Center Thursday for the ‘007 License to Give 1st Annual Homecoming Blood Drive.
The
event, planned by a group of five students through the Appalachian and
the Community Together (ACT) office, set an original goal to collect
500 pints.
A total of 665 pints were collected. Donors were supplied with refreshments and free T-shirts.
“I do a lot through the ACT office and I was asked if I wanted to help
with coordinating this event,” said Dylan L. Clayton, a senior
journalism major. “I really like blood donation because it’s cool to
give part of yourself to help someone else.”
“We were trying to think of a project that was a large scale project
that all faculty and student clubs could participate in around
homecoming,” said Jenny R. Koehn, ACT community service coordinator.
“We had total partnership with the American Red Cross.”
“We worked with [Koehn] and her student committee, led by Jackie
Sullivan, to determine the number of medical staff to assign to this
blood drive,” said Mike Robinson, the district manager for donor
resource development for the American Red Cross.
“ACT organized and assigned over 220 student volunteers that worked
throughout the entire event and this was extraordinary to the American
Red Cross,” Robinson said.
 Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock prepares to give double red blood cells at the blood drive Thursday with a member of the Red Cross staff. Lindsay Diedrich
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Robinson said Lu Johnson, a senior donor resource development
representative, was the point person for the American Red Cross on this
project.
Most of the staff assigned to the blood drive was based out of
Winston-Salem, and a few staff members were came from the Charlotte and
Durham areas, said Robinson.
“Our goal everyday is to save lives and to gain a safe and adequate
supply for patients that need it,” said Melanie D. Myers, a donor
resource development blood center coordinator out of Winston-Salem. “I
had been working with the American Red Cross for three years and then I
had to have blood so it was pretty eye-opening as to the importance of
blood donation.”
Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock made a double donation and there were many first time blood donors, Koehn said.
“My RA told us it was going on and I’d never done it before so I
thought it would be a good idea,” said Aaron L. Price, a freshman
interdisciplinary major. “I thought it would be more painful. I would
do it again -- everyone is in a good environment for a good cause.”
“Personally I was amazed at the commitment level of the students, staff
and faculty of [Appalachian],” said Robinson. “The amount of work and
pre-planning put into the event, along with the number of donors that
came to give of themselves in order to save or sustain the lives of
people was awe inspiring.”
“I just wanted to give back a little more and homecoming points is a
big deal for my building,” said Laura M. MacMinn, a freshman undecided
major. “Everyone is really nice, helpful and upbeat, and very willing
to answer any questions I might have.”
MacMinn volunteered as an escort for donors after they gave blood.
However, some students were disappointed in the amount of time it took to give blood.
Rev. Spencer Price, a sophomore industrial design major, signed up to
donate blood at 5:30 p.m., but did not leave the convocation center
until around 10:20 p.m.
Price, who donated blood as a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, ended up
missing a recruitment event for his fraternity that night because of
the wait at the blood drive.
“I was pretty mad about it and I wanted to leave,” Price said. “I think they should’ve had more beds.”
Price also thinks it may have helped to have a better system for walk-ins.
“If you made an appointment, you should have been able to get out in less time,” Price said.
“Students had to wait to donate and leave for class and the reason is
so many people honored their appointments and showed up which is just
incredible,” Koehn said. “Truly, nearly everyone that signed up showed
up and it was a little overwhelming in a good way.”
“To say the event was a success would be an understatement because at
least 655 units of blood were collected. In the Carolinas Blood
Services Region, we have over 10,000 blood drives per year, and there
are only 10-15 drives of this size annually,” Robinson said.
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