Housing & Hospitality (H&H) team members continue to help others through a quarterly blood drive held on the Hill. H&H’s two most recent drives resulted in a total of 140 units collected. The last event, held in January during National Blood Donor Month, garnered 79 units of blood. This was the most successful blood drive event H&H has held since Fall 2019.
Donations collected during the H&H blood drives help patients at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and the Santa Monica UCLA Hospital. Each person who donates one pint of blood can save up to three lives. Only about 3% of Americans donate blood, although nearly 40% of the population is eligible.
“Blood donors save lives,” said Desiree Womack, who serves as H&H’s blood drive co-coordinator, adding that H&H and other donors really stepped up to help during a first-ever national blood crisis, which was caused due to severe blood shortages resulting from complications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The next H&H blood drive will be held Friday, May 19 in De Neve. Team members from across UCLA Administration are invited to participate, said Womack. Interested donors who can’t make it that day are encouraged to donate at the UCLA Blood and Platelets Center locations in Ackerman Union and at 1045 Gayley Avenue at a time that fits their schedule.
