The Spanish Club and Red Cross Club’s collaborative Blood Drive exceeded prior expectations to have, by most standards, their best blood drive of the year. Occurring on Wednesday, April 27th, it comes almost exactly 3 months after their January blood drive where it served as a learning curve for the collaboration between the two clubs. 

Complications arrived early as many Red Cross members were not informed that the blood drive would be occurring behind the MPR instead of inside it, which is where it was located the first time they attended the blood drive. And, to make matters worse, that meant the student donors would hardly know any better. 

Location, in itself, was an issue, as the outside space did not allow for the patient beds to be placed outside of the trucks for the nurses to work in a more open space. All registration, screening, and blood extractions had to be done inside of a singular trailer, another hiccup that would have to be worked around. 

“Although only a few donors could enter the truck a certain number at a time, both clubs still managed to aid people as best as possible,” Red Cross Club Vice President and senior Chloe Chan said. “We do hope future blood drives will take place in the MPR for spatial, health, and safety reasons.”

Despite issues with LifeStream, the facilitator of the event, major improvements were seen between the Spanish and Red Cross Clubs in terms of organizing and executing roles. The blood drive was able to collect 37 units of blood, exceeding the goal set by LifeStream.

“Getting the [donors] expedited from their classrooms,” sophomore and tenured Spanish club member Nina Hernandez said. “I feel like more people were able to attend because we were more on top of our performance.”

With the improvement of organization came the increase in overall enjoyment, and both clubs can agree that the experience was a step up from their January meeting. “Overall, our second blood drive partnering with the Spanish Club went well,” said Chan. “I am very happy with the experience, and it was truly a great experience for all of us.”

All the talk of improvement and no talk of how it was done. The issues to be addressed were, of course, organization but for delegating roles in particular. While last time people were switching roles without notice or simply not working, Chan said, “We learned from the mistakes that took our faults to ensure a smooth blood drive.”

“Additionally, explaining the divide of volunteers amongst our two clubs allowed for both members of each of the sides to have better opportunities to enhance their blood drive experience. We were satisfied with our collaboration and results.”

Creating a positive environment allows students to bond and create familiarity between each other for future events. Sophomore and integral Spanish Club member Luis Ramirez-Lucero said, when asked if the blood drive was an effective bonding experience, that “it can be, because it also gives people volunteering an opportunity to socialize and get to know more people.”

The overall outcome of the blood drive, with the exception of some momentary inconveniences, was a success that was the product of development and adaptation. 

“Red Cross is thoroughly satisfied with the outcome of the blood drive,” said Chan. “We hope to have even more donors and additional people from the community to come donate for the upcoming years.”