On April 19th Campolindo hosted a blood drive from 7:30am-3:30pm in the small gym where blood was collected to be sent to the Stanford Hospital for patients in need. Campo Leadership has been working with the Stanford Blood Center to prepare for and coordinate the logistics of the drive.

Account manager Monica Doleshel-Aguirre has organized over 1,000 blood drives in her 25 years of service. Doleshel-Aguirre explained how Campo was referred to Stanford Hospital, “The daughter of the nurse at Las Lomas works at Stanford Hospital, so she wanted us to run the blood drive there. She was so happy with our service that she recommended us to Campolindo.”

Leadership student junior Natalie Stewart, who is organizing the drive, discussed the recruiting process and how leadership got people involved. “We publicize it a lot using Instagram, posters, word of mouth, and then we also tabled every lunch to get people to sign up,” she said. Using these strategies leadership has gotten over 90 participants to take part in the drive.

For the most part, Stanford Blood takes over once students arrive in the small gym and the blood drive starts. “Stanford Blood Center provides most of the supplies…they bring snacks and all the medical supplies…we just put out the tables chairs,” said Stewart.

Out of the many students who decided to get their blood drawn, all were satisfied with their experience and reported that they would gladly do it again because of the impact they were able to make. Junior Evelyn Rigsby said she decided to participate in the drive because it gave her the “ability to save three lives” and she wants to “take advantage of that opportunity.”

Other students reflected this sentiment. Sophomore Jasia Hilaski said she decided to give blood because she “thinks it’s a nice thing to do and a way to give back to your community and help people who need it.”

The process was relatively easy for the participating students. “They check you in…and you sit down and they have to find a vein. Once they find one they put the needle in and take the blood. Then they take the needle, wrap it, and then you go to the snack station so you don’t pass out,” said Rigsby. It was simple and relaxing for the students. Rigsby explained that she was surprised by how easy it is: “It’s not very involved and it’s more like donating 20 or 30 minutes of your time.”

Doleshel-Aguirre went into detail about what is done with the blood once it has been drawn. Employees from Stanford Hospital periodically take coolers full of the pints to test them for disease or other irregularities. The blood is always tested the same, whether it is the donor’s first time or tenth time. If the blood passes, it is shaken up in a machine in order to separate the white blood cells, plasm, platelets, and red blood cells.

Doleshel-Aguirre explained the different functions of each component, “The white cells are very specific to our own bodies so we use those for research. Red cells are primarily our highest use of blood products because we use them for surgeries or if someone has an accident and needs a blood transfusion we give them red blood cells. The plasma is used primarily for burn victims and for therapeutic purposes. Then the platelets are used for cancer, leukemia, and immune systems as well as hemophilia.”

When asked why she enjoyed organizing blood drives Doleshel-Aguirre said, “Nothing really makes that big of a difference in saving lives… like a blood drive.”