Veterans Club Blood Drive

By Jacob Reese

jtreese@lc.edu

According to The American Red Cross, America is facing a national blood shortage due to the current pandemic and increasingly low donor turnouts. That is why it is so important for everyone who is healthy and able to donate blood! 

The Lewis and Clark Veterans Club hosted a blood drive on Wednesday November 17 in the Commons and I had the amazing opportunity to talk to a few people about it. The first person I talked to was a woman who had just finished giving blood; her name was Terra Beiermann. I asked her why she wanted to give blood and she told me she had given blood before and thought it was a good way to give back to the community. 

“Every year I take one day to help people in the community,” she told me as we sat down. “And I realized that one day I will probably need blood and so I decided to give blood while I can.” She also cited the national blood shortage as another reason for wanting to donate.

The giving spirit was in the air that day, from the people giving blood to the people volunteering their time. In no one was this giving spirit more apparent than Terry Lane, army veteran and advisor for the Lewis and Clark Veterans Club, who helped set up the blood drive. Shortly after we began our interview, Lane stopped to make sure that a donor who just got done was well taken care of. He offered him a drink and a snack before sitting him down at the table. 

Lane is an extremely caring and kind man whom I was delighted to be able to interview about the blood drive. “Veterans have a feel for serving others, and I think this blood drive is an amazing opportunity to help serve the community and the college,” he told me during the blood drive. Lane also helps run the KSHE95 blood drive, which he says gets a lot of people to come and donate.

Lewis and Clark has a blood drive twice a semester, one hosted by the Veterans Club and one hosted by the Black Student Association. Although both have passed for the fall semester, KSHE95 is having a blood drive on December 10 and 11. If you are healthy and able to do so, please consider donating blood! For more information on the KSHE95 blood drive, please visit https://blooddrive.kshe95.com/

 

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