On Thursday August 29, the Red Cross began their 2-day blood drive in the basement of Highsmith. Gail Barksdale, account manager for the American Red Cross said the Red Cross began an appeal on August 5 to combat the national blood shortage.
“A lot of things are impacting blood donations right now, like hurricanes and widespread illnesses, those kinds of things are causing blood drives to be canceled and put us deeper in the shortage,” Barksdale said.
According to Barksdale, this time of year is particularly hard for blood donations in areas which are affected by natural disasters, and by the onset of cold and flu season.
“As of August 6, we lost 60 units of blood due to cancellations as a result of Hurricane Debby, we couldn’t get caught up. It puts doctors and patients who need blood in a bad position when that happens,” Barksdale said.
Despite the shortage Kate Johnson, director of the Key Center for Community Engaged Learning said UNCA students have been a major help to this year’s blood drive.
“There seems to be this really cool energy on campus this year, it seems to be spilling into everything including the blood drive. I’ve talked to several students and asked them why they donated, and their reasoning is ‘well people need it’ which is such a genuine reason to come out and donate,” Johnson said.
The increase in student involvement this year contributed a great deal to the donation numbers and overall enthusiasm from donors according to Barksdale. She said by the end of the first day, they already exceeded their day-end goal.
“Last year we had 51 donations on the first day, and 52 donations on the second day. This year we had 71 donations on the first day and 63 so far and we aren’t even finished with the second day so that’s fantastic,” Barksdale said.
Samantha Alford, 20-year-old community coordinator for the Key Center said they received so many donors this year at Highsmith that they turned away donors and asked them to return for the next drive in October.
“We filled all of our available slots, so it’s been very busy. We’ve had quite a few walk-ins that wanted to participate but we didn’t have room for, so I just told them to come back for our October drive instead. Which is probably a great problem to have in the middle of a blood shortage,” Alford said.
According to Alford, the number of students participating in the blood drive this year is inspirational and signifies the pride they have in both their school and community.
“It’s really impressive that so many students were willing to show up. We’ve seen a lot of freshmen and new faces and even people who show up to every single blood drive we have. We really appreciate these people and the relationships that we’ve built with them,” Alford said.
Barksdale said even the number of volunteers available to help with the blood drive increased this year, which she attributes to UNCA’s students being driven to help those in need.
“I think it’s the students who make a difference, I don’t know if they’re responding to the national blood shortage appeal or just want to help people in need. We have a lot of people from the swim team helping out and volunteering this year too, it’s good to have people that are so outgoing,” Johnson said.
According to Barksdale, some people may be hesitant to donate out of fear or apathy, but she encourages everyone to donate anyway in order to make a difference.
“I used to struggle to donate blood too, I’m afraid of needles. The more I did it, the more I got used to just looking away and thinking about how I’m doing this to help somebody else and it’s very much worth being afraid for a moment,” Barksdale said.
According to Johnson, the next blood drive in Highsmith begins on October 31, and she’s very excited to see the turnout from UNCA’s student body.
“I’m thrilled with the student team we’ve developed here. There’s such a culture of giving, I’ve been genuinely touched and impressed by UNCA students who come out to donate just to help someone out in need,” Johnson said.
