Spring Break
Possibility to save life of a stranger
Rachel Spitler
Issue date: 5/9/08 Section: Forum
There are some, of course, who for physical or emotional reasons can't give blood, and that's okay.
All three of my brothers fall into the former category, mostly because of the foreign locations they lived while on missions for our church, not to mention the exotic diseases they caught there.
My husband is one of the latter types. He can hardly even sit with me when I donate; in fact, the nurses all but ignore me, pointing instead at his ghostly-pale face and whispering to each other in concern. After I'm done, he has to eat a cookie and lie down with his feet up.
As far as I'm concerned, this sort of thing is just as legitimate an opt-out as anything physical. No one wants you to make yourself sick; after all, sickness is, more or less, the very thing they're trying to conquer.
The good news is that there's still room to help out - they always need volunteers to guide people, sign them in and serve them recovery food afterwards.
I've done this myself, and it was a lot of fun. Among other things, you get to meet the intensely cool old people who count their lifetime donations in gallons.
Oh, and speaking of recovery food - OSU blood drives, unique in my personal experience, go the extra mile and reward your participation not with cookies, but with donuts. Just in case you need another reason.
Delicious incentives aside, there really is a huge need for this. The Red Cross website features a truly unnerving flash animation that reads, "X people have needed blood since you arrived at this website."
The number increments at the alarming rate of once every two seconds, rousing incongruous feelings of guilt - almost as if you were actively injuring people by sitting there trying to schedule an appointment.
Fear not, gentle reader: it's only an illustration.
Unfortunately, the sense of urgency it conveys is well-justified.
As stated in another part of the website, "only 5 percent of the eligible U.S. population donates blood in any given year."
All three of my brothers fall into the former category, mostly because of the foreign locations they lived while on missions for our church, not to mention the exotic diseases they caught there.
My husband is one of the latter types. He can hardly even sit with me when I donate; in fact, the nurses all but ignore me, pointing instead at his ghostly-pale face and whispering to each other in concern. After I'm done, he has to eat a cookie and lie down with his feet up.
As far as I'm concerned, this sort of thing is just as legitimate an opt-out as anything physical. No one wants you to make yourself sick; after all, sickness is, more or less, the very thing they're trying to conquer.
The good news is that there's still room to help out - they always need volunteers to guide people, sign them in and serve them recovery food afterwards.
I've done this myself, and it was a lot of fun. Among other things, you get to meet the intensely cool old people who count their lifetime donations in gallons.
Oh, and speaking of recovery food - OSU blood drives, unique in my personal experience, go the extra mile and reward your participation not with cookies, but with donuts. Just in case you need another reason.
Delicious incentives aside, there really is a huge need for this. The Red Cross website features a truly unnerving flash animation that reads, "X people have needed blood since you arrived at this website."
The number increments at the alarming rate of once every two seconds, rousing incongruous feelings of guilt - almost as if you were actively injuring people by sitting there trying to schedule an appointment.
Fear not, gentle reader: it's only an illustration.
Unfortunately, the sense of urgency it conveys is well-justified.
As stated in another part of the website, "only 5 percent of the eligible U.S. population donates blood in any given year."
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