The American Red Cross held its first blood drive this past Tuesday in the Hynes Athletic Center from 9am until 5pm. The event was open to all and received great support from the Iona community with over 140 individuals signing up to donate.

Junior Meghan Murphy was at the event and donated along with many others who feel that every little part that they can do works towards a greater cause. One donation of one pint can work to save the lives of three people who are in need. Murphy, who has donated several other times in the past, although never through the Red Cross, said, “It’s a good deed and it’s easy to do.” She went on to say that she hopes that other people share her giving attitude as she hopes that there would be enough blood available if she were to ever need it.

Rudy Helbock, a junior at Iona was also one of the day’s many donors, contributing the standard donation of one unit of blood. Helbock said, “Accidents happen every day, and it’s good to know that able bodied men and women can donate blood to people who need it and potentially save up to three lives.”

The Red Cross has two options for donating that were practiced at this particular drive. The most common is donating a single unit or one pint of blood. The other option is double red cell donations, a process where two units are taken from the donor but the red blood cells are separated from the other parts of the blood, and then the plasma and platelets are returned to the donor in a saline solution through the sterile, single use needle from which the blood was originally drawn.

Thomas Kane, the account manager who set up the Iona blood drive and manages other drives for the Westchester-Bronx area, said that he was very pleased with the turnout on campus. The Red Cross was able to meet and pass the goal of 100 units donated for the day. Kane said “most people don’t realize that blood only has a shelf life of 42 days, which is the reason that we have ongoing blood drives all the time because you can only store blood for a very limited amount of time.” He went on to say that they are at critical levels with donors who have a blood type of O positive which is compatible with every other blood type thus having the name of “universal donor.”

Since the turnout was better than expected, Kane said it is very likely that the Red Cross will be returning to Iona for future blood drives if possible.