Exhibit Hall was filled with a mix of phlebotomists — people who draw and process blood and nurses on Thursday, as the Red Cross Club hosted the third blood drive for the 2011-2012 school year.

Exhibit Hall was filled with a mix of phlebotomists — people who draw and process blood and nurses on Thursday, as the Red Cross Club hosted the third blood drive for the 2011-2012 school year.

Although the club hoped to reach a lot of students, Portia Queen a senior elementary education major and the president of the Red Cross club said there was not as big turn out as expected. A goal was set for 30 units of blood, and it was not met.

Why was the goal not reached? The bottom line is that the students just did not show up according to Queen. There was enough staff, enough supplies, and plenty of food and water stocked in the canteen area.

“One pint saves three lives or six babies,” she said.

According to nurse Robin Lee at the blood drive site, collecting blood is very important because it helps treat several ailments such as sickle cell anemia — a disease that affects many African-Americans.

There are about 80,000 people in the U.S. that are affected by the sickle cell anemia disease. Of those 80,000 people 90 percent of them are African-American. A person with sickle cell anemia needs about 100 pints of blood each year to live. Two people with similar characteristics in their blood decreases complications with a blood transfusion. This means that African-Americans need African-American blood in order to make blood transfusion as successful as possible. “With a disease such as sickle cell anemia affecting this community as it does, it is important that the African American community come out in the masses to to donate,” said Lee.

The Red Cross Club promoted as much as they could within their means. They posted flyers, did dorm storms and even promoted at a table in the union prior to the day of the blood drive. Not only did they promote the blood drive at the table, they also set up appointments to make it easier for students to get in and out on the day of the drive. “People who made appointments did not show up for them, even though we sent out emails to remind them,” said Queen.

Donating blood is a seemingly easy task according to Jayvon Johnson, a liberal studies major.

“Giving blood is important and every individual should try to donate,” he said. Johnson donated blood because his father is a liver transplant candidate and would need the blood; he also simply just gets a good feeling from it.

The requirements are vast and specific, so specific that only five percent of the population is eligible to donate. Nurses ask if a donor has any tattoos that were done outside of a professional parlor. If the answer is yes, then they are ineligible to donate for the fear of contamination and unsanitary practices. Also if tattoos are done out of state, you are not eligible to donate.

Johnson has 11 tattoos, and said they are all done professionally. He says he saw the flyer in Gibbs Hall and decided to donate. He shared that donating was painless, and an easy process and wondered why more didn’t attempt to such a simple act of kindness.

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• Courtney Matthews Contributor