The Blood Bus is going to be located on campus in the parking lot behind the bookstore on March 31 for the annual 2011 National Cesar E. Chavez Blood Drive Challenge, in which Bakersfield College is competing with many colleges across the nation.
Katrina Oldershaw, the Student Government Association’s legislative liaison commented on the regulations and requirements to donate blood.
“The blood screening takes place in the fireside room and they basically just check to see if you are able to donate.
Things like how old are your tattoos and piercings, weight check to make sure the body can handle the loss of blood, just have to be at least 110 pounds, or to see if your are sick, and once cleared by the nurses from Houchin Blood Bank escorts students to the Blood Bus,” she said.
The drive is going to be there to help those in need of blood as usual, but also to beat last year’s record for the amount of registered donors and the amount of blood obtained.
BC actually is ranked 37th in last year’s most successful blood drive award with a donor goal of 125 with 120 registering and a pint goal of 152 with 89 collected.
So this year BC wants to break its own record as well as beat out the competition, and SGA is trying to make that happen by giving presentations in certain classes as well as including free T-shirts and a slice of pizza to registered donors.
The big incentive they are using this year compared to last year’s is being entered in a drawing to win one out of five $100 BC Bookstore vouchers.
This year’s drive will not have as much media coverage because Oldershaw says that it may drive some people away from donating.
The SGA encourages everyone to come out and donate blood not just students, but the community is invited as well.