Joe Mertz Center, Red Cross to host blood drive
FOR RELEASE: Sunday, February 12, 2006
Huntington, Ind. "Huntington University's Joe Mertz Center for Volunteer Service and the Huntington County chapter of the American Red Cross will sponsor a blood drive for students, faculty, and staff on Thursday, February 16, 2006, from 11:30 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. in the upper level of the Habecker Dining Commons. Huntington University has worked with the American Red Cross for more than 15 years. Every school year the Joe Mertz Center provides three opportunities for blood donation.
Our goal is to receive 80 productive units, which means we really need about 110 people signed up to give blood, said Joanne Miller, advisor to the Joe Mertz Center.
A single donation can save as many as three lives because a blood donation can be separated into three components: red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.
Donating blood helps the Red Cross do its job, said Betsey Bean, a senior exercise science major from Olivet, Mich.
Bean has donated at Huntington University for two years and says, It's an easy way to help someone else even if I never know who I am helping.
Because there isn't a blood shortage in the Huntington area, the blood will be sent nationwide.
We are low on O negative and B negative, said to Jon Lehrman, donor recruitment supervisor for the American Red Cross. We only have about one day supply of each of these blood types as of February 9, 2006.
The minimum requirements for donating blood to the American Red Cross are that one must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be in good general health.
