RWU recently partnered with the Rhode Island Blood Center and hosted a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the North Campus Residence Hall Lobby on Feb. 21 and 22.
According to an email sent out by Director of the Feinstein Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement KC Ferrara, the blood drive resulted in 79 successful donations which will help save 237 lives.

Among the donors was first year Anna Lyons. Lyons said she has donated in the past and believed that the campus blood drive is a “really great opportunity to donate blood and make it accessible to students.”

Supervisor Victoria oversaw the blood drive where she said it was her job to make sure everyone was doing well with reactions and answer any medical questions.

According to Victoria, one blood donation can save three lives and the blood types the Rhode Island Blood Center is in most need of are O-Negative and O Positive.

When having blood drives at colleges and universities, Victoria said, “we get a lot of first time donors and they do really well then they want to come back and keep giving back to the community.”

Additionally, Victoria said that by having blood drives at local colleges and high schools, “[the blood center] is trying to get you guys at a younger age so you guys keep coming back and coming back until you’re not healthy enough to come back…we have 80 and 90 year old donors.”

If someone is unable to donate blood, they can still volunteer to pass out cookies and juice at blood drives or volunteer to drive the blood back to the Blood Bank in Providence.