Photo by: James Brown
The University of Denver and Bonfils Blood Center teamed up last week for the fall quarter blood drive to collect blood donations from hundreds of students across campus.
Located in the Driscoll Center Ballroom, over 150 students signed up to donate with several additional walk-ins. Of the donors, over 30 of them were first-timers.
First-time donors are crucial to the process of blood collecting because “on average, only about 4.5 percent of Colorado residents donate each year while the national average is over 5 percent,” explained Daniel Reed, the Central Zone business development manager for Bonfils.
Reed and the Bonfils community hope that these first-time donors will become regulars who donate several times a year.
Today, the average donor gives blood just twice a year and is between the ages of 37 and 39.
Of the 1700 organizations that Bonfils partners with, between 35 and 37 of those are college campuses which are able to make a huge impact on the community.
Each year, the University of Denver holds six two-day drives in the spring and fall and a one-day drive in the summer. The fall drive was the final one of 2006.
Last year, DU was successful in bringing in over 554 donations, making it 20th in the state of Colorado for most donations, compared to CSU, which was 7th, and Colorado School of Mines, 37th.
Donors are required to be at least 18 years of age, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health.
Of the donors that come in, a few are turned away in order to secure the individual donor’s safety if the organization feels they are unsuitable to be donating.
On average, Bonfils ends up using 87 percent of what is collected which then goes through a 48-hour process in order to prepare the blood for the recipient.
Every two seconds, someone in the United States receives a blood transfusion. A single donation can save up to three lives.
Donating takes about 10 minutes and is the “easiest and most immediate way to make an impact on your community,” states Reed.
The Bonfils organization has been supporting Colorado’s community hospitals for over 60 years, with a goal of 4300 donations a week.
Shelf life of the blood will range anywhere from one year for plasma, six days for platelets and three days for red blood cells.
Supplying to over 80 percent of Colorado hospitals each week, the 650 Bonfils Blood Center employees are constantly looking for donors.
