The biannual blood drive at Johnson State went off without a hitch this spring, bringing in 58 total units from 63 presenting donors.

Coordinating with the American Red Cross, JSC’s SERVE office organizes two blood drives on campus each year, one at the end of October and the other at the end of March.

The difference in number of units donated compared to presenting donors comes as a result of potential donors inability to give blood.

Even though an individual would like to give blood, certain things like low iron, sickness or recent travel could prevent them from giving the full amount or giving at all.

A full unit of blood is 525 mL, which translates to roughly one pint.

According to Andie Flavell, the SERVE graduate assistant, the fall blood drive does traditionally yield more donations.

This year was no different with 70 units donated at the October drive.

“Even though we got less units, [the Red Cross] felt like the blood drive itself ran really well,” Flavell said. “Talking to the donors, they were pleased that they didn’t have a long wait time. Everything went really smoothly, so that made us happy.”

Flavell said that, in addition to staff from the Red Cross, there were 19 volunteers from the JSC community.

The Red Cross helps with blood drives in communities all over the country in an effort to build up essential stores of blood units.

The units are used in a variety of ways to assist cancer patients, trauma patients, sickle cell patients, burn patients and patients with chronic diseases who need regular transfusions.

According to the Red Cross, someone in the U.S. needs blood every two seconds.

Students, faculty and staff are encouraged not only to donate but also to volunteer at blood drives.

Any community members interested in volunteering can contact the SERVE office.

Flavell joked that they even had too many volunteers at times, but she said, “We’d rather have too much than not enough!”