By Khyeria Ferguson
April 2, 2014
If the rest of the world gave as much blood as Dominican University does, the people in the medical world could be among the happiest on Earth.
On Tuesday, March 25, Dominican held its second blood drive this year, an event that turned out to be one of its most successful of the last few years. Because of the great amount of student, faculty and staff participation, this semester’s blood drive resulted in over 90 total blood donors.
The blood drive, sponsored by Residence Life, was held in conjunction with the American Red Cross. Junior Molly Dettmann, a resident assistant on campus, led the organization of the event for the second time this school year.
Dettmann believes the blood drive benefitted from a kind of snowball effect in which donors essentially inspired one another to take part in helping a greater cause.
“I believe once students hear the fact that one donation could save three lives, they become more inspired to donate blood,” Dettmann said. “Donating blood is an opportunity to give back to the community and Dominican students love helping out.”
After registering and receiving approval from the American Red Cross staff, participants were led to a gurney where a registered nurse withdrew one pint of blood from each donor. After donating blood, donors were encouraged to eat healthy snacks and drink lots of water in an effort to regain their strength and avoid fainting.
Freshman Valerie Mathis said that giving blood has been an easy way for her to continually help her immediate community.
“I donated a few times in high school and donating blood is a good way to contribute to helping society,” Mathis said.
Blood donation allows individuals to get involved and give to their community without expecting anything in return and there are various reasons why someone would choose to donate blood.
“I’m healthy and I have an ample supply of [blood] and one day I may need it,” donor and Physical Plant Administrative Assistant Elena Maans explained.
All blood donated during Dominican’s blood drive will be distributed to patients to several hospitals within the Chicagoland area.
Dettmann remains positive that because of the high turnout this semester, donor populations will only continue to grow in the future.
“American Red Cross has ranked Dominican University as the number one donating university in the Chicago area,” Dettmann said.
Due to the rise in participation this spring, Dettmann also said that there is a possibility of Dominican hosting an additional blood drive during the summer months, something the university has not done in the past. But, with the continued successes of the university’s blood drives, a summer blood drive may be just one more opportunity for Dominican to continue to give back.