This is the heart of the holiday season. Many people are out shopping and trying to find the perfect gifts for their friends and family. Meanwhile, volunteers like Brittany Gunter are helping those in need by donating her blood and encouraging others to do the same. Gunter is a member of the Red Cross Club at Penn State and will be volunteering through the final weeks of the semester to help the Red Cross receive more blood donations.
Britney Gunter, Secretary for the Penn State Red Cross Club
“We will be hosting donations till the end of December and encourage people to come out because the reserves usually drop over the holidays,” said Gunter.
The reserves tend to drop around the summer and holiday season because students, a good percentage of donation totals, are no longer in school. People are usually traveling or relaxing around those times as well. Not to mention, the likelihood of car accidents increases around those times, as people will be visiting family and friends. These reasons are why it’s important for the Red Cross to receive as many successful donations now.
Gunter joined the Red Cross club after transferring her junior year from Altoona to University Park. She explained after seeing first-hand how donations can save lives, she knew the Red Cross club was an organization she wanted to be a part of.
“My uncle was in a terrible car accident and went through at least 100 units just to save his life,” said Gunter.
She did not want to go into detail about what happened, but explained that the accident was a tough experience on her family and without the blood donations, there was very little chance her uncle would have survived. It is people like her uncle that Gunter and the Red Cross organization are trying to help this holiday season with donations.
A single donation consists of one pint of blood, which contains valuable red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. By using a centrifuge, these different substances can be separated into three individual components. Each single component can be used in different cases where they are needed most. For instance, a patient with a blood disease might only need red blood cells, while a cancer patient may only need platelets. By using this technique, one successful whole blood donation can help save the lives of three individual people.
The Red Cross encourages college students to donate because they are generally active and healthy. Young people tend to have more platelets than the elderly, which is important because platelets are critical for cancer patients and only have a shelf life of five days. This short shelf life, as well as cancer being the second cause of death in the United States, is another reason the Red Cross asks anyone who is eligible to donate to consider the easy procedure.
Red Cross blood drive at Beaver Stadium
Anyone over the age of 18 and weighing at least 110 pounds can be eligible to donate. Those under 18 years of age must receive consent from a parent or guardian. The organization will go through a screening to see if the donor has traveled out of the country or received a tattoo or piercing in the past 12 months. If the donor meets these requirements and is feeling healthy and eaten that day, he or she should be eligible to donate.
Anyone who would be interested in volunteering or learning more about the donation process can visit volunteer.psu.edu. All training and information can be provided at the blood drives, with the next one being held December 11 in the HUB.