Oct2 Blood Drive

Hello Readers,
Just thought that I'd let you know that Acacia Fraternity and Sigma Chi are co-organizing the Red Cross blood drive at RPI on October 2nd and a little bit about how donating blood can help to save lives.



On October 2 2012 The American Red Cross will be having a Blood Drive in the RPI Mueller Center.  These blood drives are regularly scheduled at RPI and often fraternities and other student organizations volunteer to sign up individuals for appointments to give blood.  For the Oct 2nd drive, Acacia Fraternity and Sigma Chi have been signing up volunteers over this past week.  We'd appreciate it if you could help out by signing up too!

How does donating blood help the community?  More than 44,000 blood donations are needed every day, and 1 blood donation can help to save up to 3 lives.  Blood donations only last up to 42 days so new supplies are always in need.  Blood donations are needed for various purposes including blood transfusions in the case of serious accidents/injuries.  Cancer patients may need blood transfusions during some treatments that they may need to endure.  Blood supplied by donations also helps those with Sickle Cell Anemia who may need multiple blood transfusions throughout their lives.  The blood used to help people in need comes from volunteers like you!  You can learn more about the value of blood donations here.

The expected time commitment to donate blood (a whole blood cell donation) is between 45 minutes and 1 hour.  The actual donation process only takes around 6 to 8 minutes, but before that time donors are required to review necessary reading material, complete a questionnaire on medical background, get the iron content of their blood tested (just a little finger prick), and be supplied with the apparatus necessary to donate blood.  Depending on the results of these tests, Donors may need to be deferred from donating blood.  If not deferred, the donor will then be given their own cot, and have their arms checked for appropriate sized veins.  Red Cross specialists will thoroughly sanitize the area from where blood will be taken.  The blood will be drawn by inserting a needle into your arm and you are free for the most part to just relax while the blood donation is being made.  Also, Following your donation you will be able to recuperate with a tasty snack and juice and can talk with members of Acacia and Sigma Chi who will be distributing the snacks.  Be sure to drink lots of fluids after donating!  You can learn more about the donation process here.

In order to make sure that we have enough donors to make the Red Cross's time worthwhile, Acacia Fraternity and Sigma Chi Fraternity are in the corner of the DCC just a few feet from Jazzman's from 10 am to 4 pm Today(sept.28) and Monday the 1st.  We've got a lot of people signed up, but there's still plenty of space on our schedule!  If you can't make it to the DCC during those times, you can register with the red cross and sign up here.  While walk ins are welcome, signing up for an appointment will make it easier to donate when you would like and decrease your wait time, and helps the Red Cross get an idea of how much labor they need to supply.

P.S. : sign up to donate and we'll give you a coupon voucher that will get you a coupon for a free taco from Taco Bell
P.S.S. : if you are blood type O- or O+, it would be great if you could do a Double Red Blood Cell Donation.  you have the opportunity to give twice the red blood cells and you get your plasma back!  Yay plasma!

-Tom Anesta