Blood may not seem like the thing that would top most holiday wish lists, but for some individuals and families, it is the perfect gift and means the difference between life and death. At Ross Medical Education Center, each campus works hard to engage in their community in meaningful and powerful ways. One of the very important ways that this is done is through blood drives hosted at the campuses. During the summer and the holiday season, blood drives tend to occur less frequently, so the Ross Medical Education Center campus in Cincinnati, Ohio decided that the holiday season was a perfect time to ensure that there would be blood available for those that need it.
The Hoxworth Blood Center, with the University of Cincinnati, has been working to provide powerful health solutions for the citizens in its community for many years. According to their website, the vision of Hoxworth Blood Center is “to enhance the wellbeing of patients in our service area by assuring a reliable and economical supply of the safest possible blood, by providing innovative hemotherapy services, and by promoting research and education programs in transfusion medicine.” Hoxworth is recognized for providing safe and reliable blood and innovative cell therapies.
During the month of December, the Cincinnati campus hosted their third annual Hoxworth Blood Drive, and this was the most successful blood drive for the Cincinnati campus. The blood drive was initiated by one of the students in the Cincinnati Medical Assistant program, Briana Hayes-Coleman. She took the initiative to set up the drive with Hoxworth, and she was able to get over 25 participants. Briana said, “I decided to do the blood drive because I believe in giving back. When I was born, my mom needed a transfusion. Her situation was life threatening without it. So the only thing I could do is pay it forward and try to help save lives.” This drive was able to produce 13 pints of blood donations for the campus’ most successful blood drive yet.