a feel-good experience
When you get past the part where the technician sticks your finger, or when that harpoon-sized needle slides into your vein for the very first time, giving blood is really a feel-good experience.
Every year in the late fall, a crew from Virginia Blood Services drops by Collegiate by invitation of the Interact Club to conduct its annual drive.
This time, the turnout was typically exceptional, and in 7 hours students, faculty, and staff members contributed 64 pints to a very worthy cause.
“Collegiate has always been awesome like that,” said Jenny Vaughan of VBS. “When you figure that one pint of blood can save three lives, 64 pints means 192 lives.”
The majority of donors are students.
Since the earliest age one can donate blood is 17 (and only then with parental permission), most are undertaking the adventure for the first time.
For some, it’s all in a day’s work, just the right thing to do regardless of our heightened awareness since September 11.
For others, it’s a life-altering experience that requires all the resolve and courage they can muster.
When an Interact member presented her with a sign-up sheet, junior Sarah Linas volunteered with absolutely no hesitation.
“Just a lot of paranoia,” she said with a laugh. “I knew I’d be the only person that would pass out.
“I was really nervous because I hate the sight of my own blood, but then I thought it would be kind of stupid not to give just because I was feeling a little nervous.”
To say Lindsay Lansing was scared might be an understatement, but the senior signed up anyway thanks to some arm twisting by her friend Caroline Long, the president of Interact. Although her donation time was 10:50 a.m., Lindsay peeked in first thing, registered on condition that she wasn't making a commitment, and left convinced that there was no way anyone would stick a needle into her arm.
About 10:30, she returned to offer moral support to some friends, and a few minutes later heard her name called. With great hesitation and increasing trepidation, she entered the screening room, answered the required series of questions, then watched incredulously asRobin Kiiffner, the VBS team manager, slipped on a pair of rubber gloves. "I was like, 'What the heck are you doing?!"' Lindsay recalled the next day. "When I got my finger pricked for my physical, I fainted. Nobody told me they were going to prick my finger.”
There would be no fainting this time, only a short walk to the recliner for the actual donation. "Then," she said, "I started to cry, not because I hurt that bad but because the concept of needles and blood and poking my skin made me really queasy. They gave me 7-Up and food, and my friends were all around. I couldn't have done it without my friends."
Finally, the ordeal ended, and Lindsay, now on the flip side of a serious rite of passage, headed proudly to class, then returned later in the day to help friends with similar reservations. Will she donate again? "Yeah," she said with a broad smile. "I did something I didn't think I could do. Sure, I'll be scared, but.I'll have more courage the next time."
Virginia Blood Services conducts more than 1,800 drives per year and is the sole supplier for hospitals in Richmond, Charlottesville, Farmville, Hopewell, South Hill, and Lexington. It's estimated that approximately 32,000 pints of blood are used daily in the United States; since volunteers are the primary resource, creating a large base of young donors is critical.
"We had a very good turnout for this year's drive," said Long, the Interact president. "Some people were hesitant, but most were willing to give because of their sensitivity other issue, especially since . September 11. "We have a very active community that's willing to give as much as they can."
