LCS hosts annual fall blood drive

The Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS), along with the American Red Cross, sponsored a blood drive last week in Carmichael Hall.

This month's drive brought in a successful turnout from donors, according to Zoe Lazarus, the Blood Drive's administrative coordinator. 

"One-hundred thirty-seven units of blood were collected, which equates to up to 411 lives saved," she told the Daily in an email. "Every donor really makes a difference. We had a total of 172 donors give blood in our first drive of the year. We’re very excited to see what our next two drives will bring."

Zaid Qureishi, the drive's volunteer coordinator, explained that the event usually attracts a sizable number of student donors. 

"Usually around 40 to 60 students come on any given day during the week, with about 30 to 40 units of blood being collected each day, while the remaining students get deferred for a variety of reasons,” he said.

Lazarus, a sophomore, and Qureishi, a senior, led the drive through advertising and encouraging students and staff to donate. The event was promoted through flyers and advertisements in the Daily, as well as some promotion on Facebook, according to Lazarus.

"We had a great turnout this year," she said. "Both in terms of volunteers and donors, we were glad to see that [Carmichael Hall] Lounge was full of participants almost constantly throughout the week of the fall blood drive."

Qureishi underscored the importance of volunteers to the success of the drive. The volunteers worked at check-in, helped register donors, monitored the canteen and helped recruit donors by passing out flyers, he added.

“These jobs are important because if we have volunteers, the nurses and technicians can focus on the donation process, and the drive can run smoothly with less of a wait for incoming donors," he said.

Lazarus added that she and Qureishi collaborated with coordinators from the American Red Cross in order to facilitate the running of the event.

Walk-in donations were welcome, but donors could also make appointments on TuftsLife a week before the drive so that they would not have to wait in a line, according to Qureishi.

 Qureishi said that this blood drive was smoother than previous drives when the organizers were unable to reserve Carmichael Lounge for five straight days and instead had to move the blood drive around to other spaces on campus. Having the drive in a single location on campus made publicity easier for the organizers, and the location was convenient because many students come to Carmichael Hall to eat and the lounge provides comfortable accomodations, Qureishi said.

LCS's blood drives have often been commended by the American Red Cross for their success in motivating people to donate, according to Qureishi. 

“The American Red Cross takes all blood donations and distributes them to local hospitals to help patients," he said. "They say that one blood donation can help up save up to three lives.”

The blood drive was one of the organization's first projects when LCS was founded in 1958, according to Qureishi. LCS hosts the week-long blood drive three times per year -- once in the fall semester and twice in the spring semester, Lazarus added. The next will take place from Feb. 17-20.