NEWARK, Del. – Our third blood drive of the fall semester at the University of Delaware began with 54 appointments on Wednesday, November 15 and we rallied for 68 units when all was said and done at the Trabant University Center.
Previous blood drives this fall semester were held in September and October, at the UD Perkins Student Center across campus.
“We had a great day with AR (double red cells),” Blood Bank of Delmarva Account Manager Gia Rivera said. “We maximized and made the most of our situation.”
We had hoped to fill 125 appointments, similar to the September 27 blood drive held at the University of Delaware. Director of Donor Recruitment Joanna Arat was on location Wednesday at UD, and she was impressed with how Gia and her squadron of student volunteers rallied.
“I was happy with how we did given the circumstances,” Joanna said.
Director, Donor Resources Nicole Pineault, who spent much of her week here at BBD, said at the end of the day we ended up with 68 units we didn’t have at the start of the day. That wasn’t bad.
This blood drive was the first of two held in conjunction with the Lavender Group, Sigma Alpha Sorority and the Medical and Molecular Sciences Club in celebration of recent FDA changes in assessing donors individually instead of sexual identify or gender. The fourth and final blood drive of the semester, on Thursday, November 16, booked 35 donors. Gia was on location again and worked with students looking to rally more walk-in donors.
Special thanks to the University of Delaware students who made this blood drive a success as well as UD College of Health Sciences Professor Leslie Allshouse who sent 15 medical diagnostics majors to this blood drive as a homework assignment. Most of the students donated blood while some of them volunteered their time.
Enjoy the photos.
