Author: Ben DeLuca
The Occidental Cesar Chavez Blood Drive, cosponsored by Huntington Hospital and student group MEChA*ALAS, recruited 53 blood donors Thursday, March 22, according to Huntington Hospital recruiter Jackie Baca-Geary.
The blood drive kicked off a week of events sponsored by MEChA*ALAS, called Semana de la Raza, designed to celebrate Latino culture and heritage on campus.
Occidental’s blood drive is part of an annual, national blood drive challenge that Latino student organizations on college campuses around the country participate in. College campuses compete to see which school can collect the most blood with more points allotted for first-time and minority donors.
“The National Cesar E. Chavez Blood Drive Challenge celebrates Cesar E. Chavez’s Legacy as an American civic leader by engaging students to promote health education, health professions, civic engagement and saving lives!” the facebook page for the event read.
“We sponsored the blood drive to increase participation among minorities on campus and to help Occidental in the national challenge,” MEChA*ALAS President Bianca Fonseca-Cervantes said. “The blood drive was a success. It’s good for our group and good for the school.”
69 people signed up for the blood drive this year, including walk-ins.
53 people donated blood. Some students were deferred because of anemia, weight requirements, tattoos and other reasons, Baca-Geary explained.
In the past, Emmons Health Center coordinated Occidental’s blood drives with Huntington Hospital, City of Hope or Red Cross.
This is the first year that a student organization cosponsored the blood drive at Occidental. MEChA*ALAS coordinated with Huntington Hospital and advertised the blood drive on campus according to Director of Student Health Services Richard Youngblood.
Fonseca-Cervantes said the group’s initial goal was to get 50 sign-ups for the blood drive, knowing that some students would be deferred for medical reasons.
In the week leading up to the blood drive, MEChA*ALAS held information sessions in the quad highlighting important facts about blood donation and stressed the importance of increased minority participation in blood drives.
According to a 2011 survey by Emory University professors, minorities represent a disproportionately small number of donors; Fonseca-Cervantes said that 41 of the 69 sign-ups identified as minorities on the signup form.
“We are hoping to sponsor the blood drive again next year,” Fonseca-Cervantes said. “The blood drive held special significance because of the national challenge and Cesar Chavez. We could have done a better job of promoting awareness of Cesar Chavez since the event is named after him.”
Fonseca-Cervantes also raised the possibility of next year’s blood drive being cosponsored by other student cultural clubs on campus and making a competition between the sponsoring clubs.
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