Auburn's Student Government Association held a blood drive Wednesday and Thursday with a total of 481 pints of blood donated, saving 1,443 lives.
"A donation of whole blood saves one life and a donation of Alyx (only red blood cells) saves two lives," said Rachel Eigen, SGA assistant director of blood drives. "We had 268 students try to give on Wednesday and collected 219 pints and on Thursday we had 315 students try to donation and collected 262 pints."
The blood drive consisted of food and drinks for students that donated blood to help keep them hydrated, as well as a movie on a large projector to keep everyone occupied.
"The Red Cross brings all the equipment and computers they need and are responsible for all the blood donations," Eigen said. "Our main job is to promote the drive and make sure everything runs smoothly the day of."
There are many things that go on behind the scenes in order to prepare for the blood drive to be such a success.
"First, we have to book the ballroom for our drive," Eigen said. "The second part is to start getting students to sign up to volunteer at the drive and to talk to restaurants and such around town to see what food we can get donated. The next step is publicity."
So many lives were saved by students taking a few minutes out of their day to donate blood.
"Our grand total was 481 pints," Eigen said. "In only two days we saved 1,443 lives. Again, we thank everyone for coming out and giving or volunteering. You all helped save many lives."
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