Imagine your community is desperately lacking a resource that your own body produces every day. The solution, senior Shannon Kraemer said, is obvious: give blood.
Notre Dame Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society (ACS) student club are sponsoring a blood drive Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hurley Hall. For each unit of blood donated to the South Bend Medical Foundation, a $5 donation will be given to Relay for Life.
Kraemer, co-chair for Relay for Life and co-president of the American Cancer Society club, said that even one donation can make a significant difference.
“One donation of blood can save more than three lives or seven babies’ lives,” Kraemer said.
The number of blood donors is decreasing every year, she said, and many young adults do not donate blood.
“I think it is something with our generation that primarily we are pretty busy or we travel and we just forget to give,” she said.
She said one of her professors suggested the decrease in blood donations could be because of a generational difference.
“My professor said that when he was younger everyone gave and it was kind of a moral requirement that you give blood,” Kraemer said. “There is a bizarre mentality that ‘Hey it’s my blood, I can choose what to do with it,’ and I want to be sympathetic to that perspective, but I think we are all kind of in this together, and if it’s your grandma, or your mom, you wouldn’t think twice.”
Kraemer said there is a red banner on the South Bend Medical Foundation’s website, givebloodnow.com, which states that there is less than a two-day supply of A-negative and O-positive blood.
“I got really kind of anxious about it,” Kraemer said. “This I feel like is organic, you make your own blood and you’ll always have more of it, so why can’t we be a little generous to our surrounding community when that’s what means most?”
Participating in the blood drive is especially convenient for students since it takes place at central location on campus, Kraemer said. Last year only about half the appointment slots were filled, and she said she hopes a bigger turnout will occur this year.
“I think as a University that has social justice standards and human rights conversations … I really think we should be able to fill up more than two people an hour for this event,” Kraemer said.
Kraemer said many students travel internationally and as a result cannot give blood. She said for the past couple of years she was one of those students and that she looks forward to giving blood again tomorrow. She said students who are able to give blood should be donating to compensate for those who cannot, especially since there is such a dire need for donations in the South Bend community.
“I just wanted to communicate that this is urgent and students need to wake up to this,” Kraemer said.
