Los Medanos will host a blood drive this month for the Blood Centers of Pacific to provide students and staff the opportunity to donate blood.

It will be held on Tues., March 20 from 11:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. at a bloodmobile outside of the library. Appointments can be scheduled ahead of time online but they are also open to drop-ins. The bloodmobile will also be available to off-campus visitors but they will need to pay for a parking fee.

The Office of Student Life under the leadership of Student Life Coordinator John Nguyen organized the event.

“It’s an opportunity for us to educate folks about how donating blood really does save lives,” said Nguyen, “and we wanted the community to be involved as well, which is why we encourage our students, our faculty, and administrators to sign up and to donate blood.”

According to Nguyen, the event has been put on for over the last 10 years in a partnership with Blood Centers of Pacific as a way to persuade others to donate blood. He said he also hopes the event will continue for years to come.

Blood Centers of Pacific is a non-profit organization that through cooperation with businesses, community groups, churches, synagogues, schools and colleges have been able to provide blood for over 50 hospitals and upward of 50,000 patients throughout the state of California over the last 70 years.

The centers rely on both full-time and volunteer staff of nurses, physicians, laboratory assistants and more to cover as much ground as they do, which even then is not extensive enough. According to Blood Centers of Pacific, 38 percent of the US population is a type O positive blood type, the universal donor, yet only 10 percent actually do.

Students can contact Blood Centers of the Pacific at www.bloodcenters.org/locations/ and donate at the Antioch donor site at the Blue Rock Center on Mondays from 1:30 pm to 6:30 pm.