Student Organization sets goals for blood drives

Yesterday, Students for the American Red Cross (SARC) kicked off their three-day blood drive, “Don’t be afraid of the dark, come donate with SARC.” The event, which continues through Wednesday, October 19, 2011 from 11 am to 5 pm, takes place in the Memorial Hall ballroom on the University of Georgia campus. It is one of four that the organization has planned for the year.

SARC is a student-run organization that represents the American Red Cross on the University of Georgia campus. Students are responsible for planning and volunteering at the drive, which includes registration, manning both the prize table and canteen stations.

The drive offers great incentives aside from the feeling of giving back. Participants will get door prizes like t-shirts, drawstring bags, and candy. Additionally, anyone who registers, whether or not they make it through the process, will be entered into a drawing for the chance to win two tickets to the football game between rivals University of Georgia and University of Florida.

SARC has some big goals for its Halloween blood drive. “Our goal is to collect 87 pints of blood the first day, 97 the second day and 116 the third day,” says volunteer coordinator and SARC member Norman Ton. “We'll need 360 or so donors to make that goal.”

Each unit of blood collected can help save the lives of three people, and Blood Services director and American Red Cross employee Janet Jarrett stresses that much of the blood collected will be used to help children.

“When doctors are working on our smallest patients, they want to use blood [donated by] the youngest people possible,” she says. “Every single blood drive is important; every single day we have to collect the blood that we have on the books.”