Students left Hodgdon Hall yesterday with sugar cookies in their hands, after turning out in droves to donate blood in the first day of a five-day blood drive sponsored by the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS).
Approximately 75 people, including nine Somerville and Medford residents, donated blood yesterday. This was significantly more than in recent years, according to coordinator Chris Perrone, a senior. The event continues daily through the end of the week.
"It's encouraging," Perrone said yesterday. "I know it's the first day of the drive but ... it's definitely up from the numbers I'm used to seeing."
He expected a total of 300 donors by the end of the week, a considerable increase from last year's fall drive, which brought around 250 people to Hodgdon.
LCS is leading the drive, as it has in past years, in conjunction with the American Red Cross. The group generally holds one blood drive in the fall and two in the spring, according to volunteer coordinator Rebecca Sylvetsky, a sophomore.
"It's such a very important contribution to the community around us," Sylvetsky said. In one hour of donating blood, she added, a student can give enough to save three lives.
Perrone attributed the increased turnout to a greater advertising effort. He also said that changing the drive's date to late September might have motivated more students to participate. In the past, blood drives have been held in mid-October during the height of midterm season.
Audrey Kuan, a sophomore, donated blood to the LCS drive twice last year. She said her goal is to donate blood once or twice every year.
"Why not?" she said yesterday before donating. "It doesn't hurt."
Medford resident Maureen Wing, a registered nurse and consistent blood donor, said that blood drives of this sort are important.
"I just believe if you can give back, then you should," Wing said. "There's plenty of people who can't donate who should."
Sylvetsky said a record number of students volunteered to help with the drive this year. In total, the group had close to 130 volunteers involved, she said. Of these, about 30 students remain active volunteers for all of LCS' blood drives.
Senior Keith Hofmann is a veteran blood donor. This is his fourth year volunteering at the drive.
"I think it's such an easy thing to do, something that really makes a difference in people's lives," he said.
Volunteer Claire Heinegg, a freshman, said she was pleased with the student showing at yesterday's drive.
"I'm really excited to watch young people get involved," she said. "People who start now will do so for the rest of their life."
