This January, the Ross Medical Education Center campus in Ontario held their first ever blood drive with the American Red Cross. It was a very exciting and eventful day! The American Red Cross staff arrived at the campus around noon to set up so that they could be ready for the first registered donor at 1 p.m. The staff, faculty, and students watched excitedly as they set up, and they were amazed with just how many things are necessary to effectively put on a successful blood drive.
The American Red Cross supplies blood products to many local hospitals throughout Ohio and facilitates many blood drives across the United States. However, they have to find as many consistent donors as possible because, according to their website, it is estimated that another person needs blood every two seconds! That is a need that everyone at the campus wanted to help meet. Again as stated by the American Red Cross website, every unit that is donated has the potential to help three people. To help those on the campus understand the impact of a drive like this one, Erin Slusher, Financial Aid Student Services Representative, created a visual to represent the amount of people that Ontario’s drive could potentially help.
The campus community was a little concerned about their drive when they got hit with a blizzard the night before and received eight inches of snow. Due to this, they were afraid that there would be many absences and the donors would not be able to make it out. However, despite the snow and cold they still had a great turn out! The campus goal was 17 units and they were able to hit and exceed that. Over the course of the drive, they were able to collect 19 units of blood that will potentially help 57 people! They even had some job shadowing going on throughout the drive and a few students from the evening Medical Assistant class got the opportunity to observe and ask questions on the last draw of the day. The American Red Cross was very helpful with the students, answering their questions and patiently explaining the processes. With the experience of their first blood drive under their belt, they have already begun planning their next blood drive in June to coincide with World Blood Donor Day!