By snoadmin
The Cal State Long Beach Hispanic Students Business Association (HSBA) held its annual blood drive on Monday in the University Student Union Ballrooms.
The blood will be donated to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, which used 1,400 pints in patient transfusions last year, according to the hospital’s blood donor recruiter, Cheryl Berlow.
A solid number of students had given blood throughout the day, with just over 40 people having donated by 1 p.m. That number was expected to reach over 100 by the end of the drive at 3 p.m.
Berlow stressed the importance of the donation of one pint of blood from each person, given that each pint of blood can potentially save the lives of three people.
More recently, December 2007 marked a year that 65 pints were used to save the lives of two Long Beach police officers who had been shot.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” Berlow said. “There could be freeway pile-ups. There are a lot of children with leukemia who wind up living in the hospital and receive constant transfusions.”
Berlow added, “There’s no substitute for blood, and that’s why today is so important for us.”
She also praised the CSULB students for their donations and their support for the cause.
“The students at CSULB have always been supportive. The HSBA always runs a good drive that’s very successful… It’s important to support your community and provide blood.”
SoCal Blood Services Nurse Supervisor Lisa Barker said, “We need as much blood as we can get,” and that it was great to see CSULB students donating “out of the goodness of their hearts.”
The HSBA officer and blood drive organizer Carlos Alvarenga said the HSBA was hoping to hold blood drives more often.
“We want to make it every semester after seeing the good numbers from today; we’ve had more people than I expected,” Alvarenga said. “It’s very beneficial for the community, and we just want people to donate – the more the better.”
