Last week's three-day blood drive suffered from a low turnout due to the timing of the drive and a large number of females who were anemic and unable to donate. Still, coordinators were satisfied with the results.
"Given the fact that it's the end of the semester and everyone is quite busy, we did pretty much the way we expected to," Dan Keesing, co-coordinator of the blood drive, said.
Coordinators of the drive and the Red Cross hoped to recruit at least 195 donors. While 178 people came to donate, only 116 qualified to actually give blood. These numbers matched the February drive, where 128 units of blood were collected from 189 potential donors. One person represents one unit of blood. In the fall drive, 160 units of blood were collected from 211 potential donors, a significantly larger number.
Allison Patrick, blood drive co-coordinator, said the low turnout was not unexpected. "April is always our slowest blood drive just because it is a very stressful time of the year," she said. The blood drive began the day after the Boston Marathon, "so it was a bad blood drive day in general." The anemic females also contributed to the low turnout.
Debbie Driskell of the American Red Cross said that a number of extraneous factors contribute to the success of blood drives. "Students who travel and those who have been in Europe and have been there for three months are deferred from giving blood for the possibility of contracting mad cow disease," Driskell said.
February's blood drive suffered because of cold weather and student illness. "It was so cold in there [Carmichael] that people's blood wasn't flowing very fast. Many people came, but we didn't get enough units of blood -- that wasn't necessarily the campus' fault," Patrick said.
Some donators feel that a major influence with blood drives outcomes is the advertising and scheduling of the blood drive "I'm a big guy, I got plenty of blood," junior and blood donor Brian Kessler said. "Most people that can give blood will. You just have to make sure they know."
Blood drive coordinators try different tactics each time to recruit donors. For the April drive, the hours of the drive were especially varied. Tuesday donors were able to give blood from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on Thursday the donation station was open until 7 p.m. Red Cross workers also pasted flyers around campus, and donors were able to sign up on www.tuftslife.com.
Sophomore Becky Swartz said that low turnout could have been due to the time of year. "This past blood drive appeared to be scheduled just as final papers and tests were approaching," she said. Swartz did donate blood.
Despite the low turnout at last week's blood drive, Driskell said that present blood supply at the Boston blood bank is in good standing. The blood bank is only in short supply of one blood type: O, the universal donor.
Tufts blood drives are run through the American Red Cross. Blood collected goes towards the Boston blood bank.
It wasn't a bad drive, we did the best we could given the circumstances," Keesing said. In the future we might make an effort to inform people in how to improve iron percentage.
