Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Red Cross has seen a significant decline in blood donations, resulting in a national blood shortage.
“What’s happening is that we were affected by the pandemic, just like everyone else, so we have been trying to make up and collect enough blood for these hospital patients,” Senior Account Manager for Vitalant Laura Kamada said.
Vitalant is a non-profit organization that works to organize blood drives that connect hospitals to a blood supply. While Vitalant has hosted numerous blood drives across Cal Poly’s campus, Kamada said they are not seeing enough donors.
“I’ve met so many families and so many individuals who’ve needed blood. I’ve met so many little kids battling cancer and they needed blood products,” Kamada said. “They told me that their child had to wait because there was not enough blood for their kid because of the blood shortage.”
The Cal Poly Red Cross Club has taken the initiative to spread the word and encourage fellow students and faculty to donate blood in Vitalant’s upcoming blood drives on campus according to the club’s vice president, biological science junior Logan Foster.
“It seemed like nobody had heard about it and I hadn’t seen it out anywhere,” Foster said. “We were like well, this is a great opportunity for us to step up and try to spread the word for it.”
Lisa Gray serves as the university personnel operations and wellbeing advisor, and is working to coordinate the upcoming blood drives with Vitalant.
“College students tend to be the highest age group of donors, so it’s really important to have a presence on campus,” Gray said.
Each donation appointment takes around 45 minutes to an hour. Donors are encouraged by Gray to hydrate well and eat a hearty meal before donating.
“I know that my 45 minutes to an hour can save up to three lives, so it just makes me feel good to know that really, it’s not that much effort on my part,” Gray said.
Before an individual can donate blood, they must complete a screening process on the day of the event. Completing the screening process online before arriving can save up to 20 minutes of waiting time, according to Gray.
Those who sign up to donate will receive a free T-shirt as well as a $10 gift card as stated in promotional posts. Appointments can be made on the Vitalant website.
There will be another Vitalant blood drive on Feb. 29 at the yakʔitʸutʸu dorms from 1:30-5:30 p.m.