Long Beach City College held its first set of blood drives last week, since the school closed due to the pandemic in early 2020.
The next two sets of blood drives are scheduled for later this semester in April and May.
Prior to the school’s closure in 2020, The American Red Cross were frequent visitors on LBCC’s campus and would hold multiple blood drives each semester.
On Tuesday, Mar.1 and Wednesday, Mar.2, students who signed up and made an appointment to donate were able to stop by the blood drive sites on campus between 10 a.m – 4 p.m to contribute to this worthy cause.
There were multiple stations set up, about half of the stations had chairs and the other half had beds for those who preferred to be lying down during the process.
Diana Boyd, who was working at the event, was happy to see so many students take up the opportunity to donate blood.
“The more drives we have, the better, because that way it is more convenient for the students and more donations will be made,” Boyd said.
This was Boyd’s first time working at a drive at LBCC and she hopes to see an even bigger turnout at the drives in April and May.
For the students who were donating, there were tables set up in the middle of the stations with a variety of both snacks and beverages, ranging from chips to water bottles to fruit snacks.
In addition to these accommodations, there was also light music playing in the background to somewhat soften the possibly stress inducing environment, with the tracks including the likes of Bob Marley and Journey.
There was a mix of both first time donors and donors who had prior experience.
For Vivienne Holmarsdottir, a student at LBCC, she was not too phased by the idea of donating blood despite being a first time donor.
“Growing up, I would have blood drawn fairly often and eventually I became accustomed to the feeling. When I saw that they were doing a blood drive, I figured why not donate to such a good cause” Holmarsdottir said.
According to Dr. Andrey Barry who was working at the drive, the blood that was collected at these two sites will be transferred to a medical facility in Pomona, where it will then be repackaged and redistributed to all the other medical facilities where it will be put to use.