By Josh Galvin ’13
THE ROUNDUP

The United Blood Services, Arizona’s largest non-profit community blood provider, paid a visit to Brophy Thursday, Oct. 6 as part of the National Honor Society Fall Blood Drive to collect blood for hospitals in need.

“(United Blood Services) is pretty amazing,” said Mr. Fred Garner, who coordinated the sign up for this event.

As an NHS event coordinator, he set up the online form and compiled the list of donors willing to give to this cause.

“They come ready to go; we just make sure (the environment) is right: the right temperature, number of tables, chairs, garbage bins … then they set it all up,” Mr. Garner said.

At the end of the drive, the organization received 56 donations and 65 total volunteers.

While every drop counts, this still fell short of the desired quota.

Because of the sometimes large amounts of students turned down for donations due to sickness, recent vacations or otherwise, the target number of applicants was 100-120, with 70 donations being the ideal amount, according to Mr. Garner.

However, the lack of support may be due in part to the concurrent Kairos retreat, in which more than 45 seniors participated and thus were unable to donate.

Despite this shortcoming the drive was successful; according to UBS Donor Recruitment Representative Mr. Tom Bryson, up to 168 lives were saved.

First founded in 1943 in Phoenix, the United Blood Services currently operates in 18 states, giving blood to more than 500 hospitals nationwide.

To learn more about this organization or how to enroll in a drive near you, visit www.unitedbloodservices.org and click “Donate Now.”