What greater gift is there than the gift of life?
That’s exactly what every blood donation delivers and the blood drive is in full swing at Lethbridge College.
The blood drive continues until the end of the month.
Different activities have been happening to raise awareness on the importance of donating blood.
One such event includes finding out your blood type with the next one happening on Nov. 24 in Centre Core at the college.
Tanner Marcer is the Events and Communications Coordinator for the Lethbridge College Students’ Association and believes that the annual blood drive is a good awareness piece for the community.
“It’s important to get young people in the habit of donating blood, it’s a good awareness piece for the community and you get to interact with a lot of community members,” said Marcer.
It also allows for some friendly competition between the college and the University of Lethbridge in the past, to see who can get more donors.
According to Marcer, this year’s blood drive is going great and the LCSA is consistently booking people.
There are some stipulations before you can donate blood.
You can donate blood if you are over 17, haven’t gotten a piercing in the past 6 months, haven’t been to restricted areas outside of Canada or the U.S.A in the past year or visited the dentist in the previous twenty-four hours.
According to blood.ca Canadian Blood Services provides a safe, secure, cost-effective, affordable and accessible supply of quality blood, blood products and their alternatives.
Canada is currently self-sufficient in blood.
However donors are in the minority.
One student at the college Brett McConnery has never donated blood.
“I’ve never really been given the opportunity to give blood. I’ve gotten my blood tested, but that’s it,” said McConnery.
Madison Ash is also a student at the college who has donated blood and will continue to.
“It just helps people and it’s a little bit of time out of your day and it can save lives,” said Ash.
You can currently sign up to donate blood at the LCSA located at the colleges centre core.
You can donate blood at other times in the year at the blood clinic here in Lethbridge. Canadian Blood Services is located at 200 4 Avenue South, Unit 220 in the Lethbridge Centre Mall.