The Red Cross pulls into CCC in hopes for a great blood drive
Signing up to give away a pint of blood may not have been the easiest thing for Camden County students at yesterday’s Red Cross Blood Drive. However, the kind faces and positive reinforcement of Red Cross employees Lauren Dennis and Lauren Montanero helped ease the nerves of the donors as they signed up for the blood drive in the Connector Building. It might have been scary for some, but that didn’t stop them from wanting to help the Red Cross reach their goal of collecting at least 60 pints of blood at yesterdays drive. With a smile on her face Lauren Dennis revealed that “We already have 57 donors, who all may not have been able to give blood, but we are well on our way to achieving our goal.” The blood drive lasted from 9am-3pm, while Lauren gave her report in at 1, the blood drive still had time to collect blood from three more donors. Both employees were almost positive that there goal would be met thanks to the generosity of CCC students.
So why exactly did students give blood? Julie Wackerle says that, “I started giving blood in high school because our blood drive was in honor of a student at my school who constantly needed blood transfusions during his battle with cancer. Even though I knew my blood may not be going directly to him, it was going to people like him and I wanted to help in any way that I could. After the student lost his battle it made it that more important to me to give my blood to do what I could to save someones life.” Another student, Mike DiMedio, laughed and said, “My mom is a nurse, so she instilled the importance of giving blood since birth.” As Mark Allen prepared to give blood he said, “I just do it, and the snack they give you at the end doesn’t hurt!” So whether it was in remembrance of a friend, because of family values, or just to do it students had their hearts in their right places at yesterday’s drive. Claire Dorian from the Red Cross gave in the final result for 56 productive donors, just short of our goal but still awesome. One pint of blood can save up to three lives, so at yesterdays drive CCC students helped save the lives of up to 168 people! A job well done!