Blood donations stay within L.A. community

With two on-campus groups asking students to donate blood and save lives, it can be confusing for students to decide which group to donate to.

Both the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center and the American Red Cross Club hold blood drives throughout the year to make it easy for students and staff to donate.

Blood donated to the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center stays within the UCLA community and goes directly to the UCLA Medical Center, said Linda Goss, who is the recruitment supervisor for the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center.

The American Red Cross Club also holds blood drives, but their donations go to any of the 130 hospitals in the L.A. area, said Stephanie Be, club president.

The UCLA Medical Center relies on their drives for about 65 percent of all their donations, Goss added.

When there is a shortage of blood donations at the Blood and Platelet Center, the hospital has to buy blood from the American Red Cross, their second source for blood.

Be said students should donate when it’s convenient for them, and they should not worry about which group or organization they are going through to donate blood.

Sometimes the timing of the blood drives can overlap, and this can lead to further confusion for students.

Next week for instance, the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center is sponsoring a blood drive from Nov. 12-14.

On Dec. 3, both groups will team up for a blood drive in competition with USC just before the UCLA-USC football game.

Students must choose when to donate because they cannot participate in both drives.

Be said that the two groups might be portrayed as a rivalry but that it really should not be seen as such.

Both groups are just trying to get the most amount of blood donated as they possibly can, she added.

Goss said the groups are not competing for donors.

She added that she wants students to understand what a hospital-based donor center is and for students to know they exist.

“We started aggressively recruiting donors about ten years ago because the Red Cross wasn’t meeting all our needs,” Goss said.

“We started collecting our own blood, and this has helped us take care of our own patients and become a more cutting-edge and self-sustaining hospital.”

She said that if students donate blood in the upcoming weeks before the UCLA-v.-USC football game, it will go toward the rivalry.

Goss said students have been extremely important to the hospital when there have been shortages, and she thinks it is important for students to know that blood donated through the center will stay within the UCLA community.

Justin Zaghi, the chief of staff of the Student Welfare Commission, said he is concerned that students may get confused about donating, but he just wants people to donate, no matter what.

“For the blood drive in December, we want it to be USC v. UCLA, not UCLA v. UCLA,” said the fourth-year neuroscience student.

He said it was due to a communication error that both groups planned their drives on the same day, but the UCLA Blood and Platelet center negotiated with the American Red Cross so they could work together.

The blood drive in December is a competition with USC to see which student body can donate the most blood.

The two blood donating groups are coming together for the event, but it is the American Red Cross that is overseeing and coordinating the competition.

“The Red Cross does the drive at USC, and this allows us to have the competition with them,” Be said.

“We put it on last year, and it’s even bigger this year.”

Be, a third-year bioengineering student, said that coming together with the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center will give them twice as much manpower.

She said neither group wants to detract from the other, and that they may collaborate more in the future.

“We’re just trying to get people to donate,” said Be.

“Just donate, period.”

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