“I’m donating blood today because I want to give back to the community and help with research,” said LMC student Julia Steele at the The Blood Centers of the Pacific blood drive located on campus Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Steele made note that the reasons for donating weren’t just for those nearby.

“My grandma lives in North Carolina and I think that if my blood goes to someone who needs help there or anywhere else affected I would be really glad,” said Steele, addressing the recent natural disaster Hurricane Florence which decimated the region.

Jasmine Medina, an LMC student, found herself to be slightly nauseous after donating blood for the first time while in between classes.

“I just thought it would be a nice thing to kind of give back,” Medina said adding, “I thought I might as well just go in now that I’m 18 and don’t need a parent’s permission.”

Medina then added that she hoped by putting some good karma out into the world that it may find its way back to her. She said that in spite of the nausea she would do it again.

LMC student and tutor, Brandon Hursh chose to donate blood because he feels fulfillment whenever volunteering or helping his community. However, while donating Hursh found himself beyond the common symptom of nausea.

“I’m no stranger to fainting,” said Hursh. “When I started regaining consciousness it felt like I was waking up at home.”

He wasn’t too concerned when he realized what had happened.

“I’ve passed out before so I stayed calm when I realized what happened and the blood donation team stayed professional and calm too,” he continued.

The blood drive wasn’t just exclusive to those on campus. Local Wells Fargo Bank employee Avi Kumar dropped in to donate the sought-after double red cells. According to Alyssa Seeley, a registered nurse working at the event, a double red cell donation tends to be a longer process, but allows for blood to get to patients in-need sooner than normal donations.

Blood donations are not new to Kumar, who has been donating since his mother became ill around six years ago, but it was his first donation here on campus.

“The whole blood [donation] is the easy one, which takes about 15 minutes. [Double Cell] takes like 45 minutes,” said Kumar who has sometimes over the past six years brought coworkers in with him for donations.

One of the benefits of the double cell machine, said Seeley, is that patients usually recover faster despite having more blood cells removed. Seeley said this was because it replenishes the cardiovascular system with saline and reintroduces the platelets they do not need for the donation.

Marian Ruiz, a phlebotomist with seven years of experience, started working with the Blood Centers of the Pacific last October, said the pop up donation clinic in L-109 had been busy from opening.

“Oh yeah, we’ve had a good turnout,” said Ruiz. “Anytime is good to show up, sometimes appointments show up sometimes not.”