LCS hosts Winter Blood Drive this week amid critical need for blood donations

The Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) is holding its Winter Blood Drive with the American Red Cross starting from today until Friday, from noon to 5:30 p.m. daily, at Carmichael Hall. This drive is one of three blood drives that the organization holds during the school year — two that take place in the spring and one in the fall.

According to the drive's co-coordinator Zoe Lazarus, this particular blood drive is important because winter weather conditions have led to a "critical need for donors" in the New England area. Poor winter weather has cancelled 25 blood drives across New England, and "more than 1,000 units of blood and platelets have gone uncollected since Friday, February 5," according to a statement from the Northern New England Red Cross.

Lazarus, a junior, said that there are approximately 175 appointments are scheduled for this week's blood drive. The fall drive last October garnered around 205 blood donations, which was LCS' most successful turnout yet, she said.

"It was hugely overwhelming but really exciting, and that was a 5-day drive," Lazarus said. "This [week] is a 4-day drive ... and this [turnout] is more than you can hope for."

LCS blood drives have consistently had high donor turnout, with 172 blood donors in fall 2014 and over 175 student blood donors in fall 2013, according to previous Daily articles.

This week's blood drive will feature a few changes from previous drives, including the elimination of walk-in appointments to streamline the donation process, according to Lazarus.

"Last semester, we had kind of an overwhelming turnout which was kind of fantastic, but turned out into kind of a mess," she said. "With the appointment setup, there were an overwhelming amount of people coming in at every hour."

Lazarus said that LCS and the Red Cross want as much blood as possible, but the change to having all donators schedule blood drive appointments will make things more organized. Another change to this week's drive is the Red Cross' novel use of RapidPass, which allows blood donors to answer questions about their qualification to donate online before their appointment, saving time for participants.

According to the drive's Facebook event, donors need to be at least 17 years old, or 16 with parental permission, must weigh at least 110 pounds and be in generally good health. The event description specifies that LCS does not condone the Food and Drug Administration's policy on restricting blood donations from men who have sex with other men.

"We acknowledge that this policy discriminates against queer members of the Tufts community," the description reads.

Lazarus said that LCS defers to Red Cross policy, which follows this federal restriction, as the Red Cross brings all of the nurses and blood donation materials to the drives.

In addition to collecting blood donations, LCS is also sponsoring a raffle of Tufts gear for donors and volunteers to incentivize blood donations. According to the Facebook event, the raffle includes prizes worth up to $250, including university blankets, water bottles, flags and more. Lazarus said that LCS debuted raffles at their drives last semester, and that there was a good response to it.

According to the LCS website, the organization has been recognized multiple times by the National Red Cross for their successful drives, where they've collected approximately 1,000 pints of blood every year.

"Our catchphrase is: save 3 lives in 20 minutes," Lazarus said. "Your pint of blood goes potentially up to 3 people ... depending on your blood type."

LCS' second spring blood drive will be held from April 12 to 15 in Carmichael Hall.

Correction: The previous version of this article stated that the LCS blood drive will not follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's policy on a 12-month referral on blood donations from men who have sex with other men. In fact, LCS does not condone this policy, but will be following it, as they are deferring to the Red Cross, which does follow this federal restriction. The Daily regrets this error.