PERSPECTIVE: There’s no excuse for not giving blood

“I think I’m B-negative,” came the offhanded comment from a student after hearing that Lifeline Blood Center in Jackson had a critical need for B-negative blood.

“I’ll think about giving.”

Two weeks later, this student has yet to give blood. This fact enforces something I’ve contemplated since transferring to Union last semester: If something that needs attention is troublesome – or simply not convenient – do we try to do it anyway?

When I transferred to Union, I was excited about new possibilities and terrified about fitting in. I had spent my first year and a half of college attending Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C.

While there are several differences between Union and Bob Jones, one change is how these universities promote – or do not promote – on-campus blood collections.

Blood Donation Week was practically an event in and of itself at Bob Jones.

A good week before the blood buses pulled onto campus, students were encouraged by student community service leaders to donate.

These same leaders volunteered time working tables where students signed up for a slot to donate.

The blood buses would be on campus Monday through Friday for one week each semester. There was an immense amount of pressure to donate blood.

They indicated that, basically, if a person could donate, he or she should. No exceptions.

The T-shirt a student received was practically a status symbol. And everyone who donated wore the new T-shirts at the end of the week.

Although I am not condoning pressuring people to give blood, I do think it is something that Union could publicize more.

This semester, I found out about the blood drive the day the blood bus arrived. Further digging revealed that the announcement of the opportunity to give blood was buried in the weekly campus “E-nnouncements.”

While I would love to believe that everyone reads through these each week, I know from my own experience that is not the case.

The sad reality is that Lifeline Blood Center is situated about five minutes away from campus.

While employees only visit campus for one day per semester, the center is literally right down the road, and the center is ready to receive donations from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays and Fridays and from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays — every week throughout the semester.

While it is easy to blame Union for my failure to donate (because of poor advertising of on-campus blood collections), is that truly the problem?

The fact is that the problem is my own laziness in not being willing to take an hour to drive over to Lifeline and donate a unit of blood.

My hope is that awareness of Lifeline’s location will motivate others to make the drive. Find out your blood type and at least stay up-to-date on when Lifeline needs that type of blood.

Visit www.lifelinebloodserv.org for more information about how to donate.

Somebody has to give.

Anna Beard is a junior advertising major.