The first time business freshman Chloe Brown donated blood was in high school. Since then, she has given blood every year on her birthday. At the on-campus We Are Blood Mobile Drive organized by the Texas Science and Natural History Museum, Brown turned 19.
Brown was one of 20 people who donated at the mobile blood drive in front of the Texas Science & Natural History Museum Sept. 29.
“I really like to give back and do something on my birthday,” Brown said. “It just makes me feel really good.”
We Are Blood, a nonprofit blood center serving Central Texas since 1951, regularly partners with student groups to organize blood drives on campus. This semester, they have collected a total of 115 units of blood from UT-affiliated drives, said Nicholas Canedo, vice president of community engagement at We are Blood.
“Every single day, patients in Central Texas are relying on blood transfusions,” Canedo said. “We need to collect at least 200 donations (per day) to meet those needs.”
Canedo said blood drives decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic because of remote learning and safety protocols, but resurged after the Sixth Street shooting at Buford’s bar in March.
“We saw tons of people coming out to give back and try to honor the memory of the people that were impacted by that tragic shooting,” Canedo said.
The blood collected goes to over 50 hospitals, clinics and emergency medical services agencies in Central Texas, and helps save the lives of surgery, cancer patients and many others, Canedo said.
Brown’s blood type is O positive, which is especially in need, along with O negative. Canedo said O-positive blood is especially important because it can be transfused into about 80% of the population.
“It doesn’t affect me negatively to give, so I’m like, ‘Why would I not do this?’” Brown said.
Julia Peltier, a biology freshman, said the drive marked her fifth time donating.
“It’s just to do as much good as I can, and donating blood is an easy way to do that,” Peltier said.
