This spring, students from Ross Medical Education Center in Kokomo, Indiana held their 5th annual blood drive on campus with the American Red Cross. They started off the day with staff making pancakes and turkey bacon for all students. Samantha Rose, Holly Durham, and Yesica Delara-Jimenez are students in the Medical Assistant program that took the lead on the blood drive.
“Our students put forth a huge effort in getting our community members involved,” shared Campus Director Shannon Spencer. “They were able to get door prizes donated for every person that donated blood that day. There were almost 40 donors. 10 of those donors were from community members in our neighborhood. The newspaper put the blood drive on our local calendar page as well as the radio made announcements for us. The morning medical assistant classes had the most donors with 25 people.”
Samantha Rose took the lead on connecting with the businesses in the neighborhood. “I just wanted to give back to those who were given their time and blood to help someone else. I decided the best way was food for those volunteering. It was a lot of fun as well meeting the different people,” stated Samantha. Jimmy Johns gave over 100 sandwiches for the blood donors, sending 25 fresh sandwiches every hour. They even had one of their employees donate!
“It was great to see everyone get involved with the blood drive,” stated Holly Durham. “We even had a little competition amongst the staff, namely Cory, Career Development Representative, and Campus Director Shannon. They raced to see who could fill the blood bag the fastest by drinking lots of water and squeezing the stress ball while donating. Cory beat Shannon with a time of 4 minutes and 6 seconds to fill her pint bag and Shannon was a little shy with 4 minutes and 36 seconds.”
“I want to help out next year as a Ross graduate!” said a very excited Yesica Delara-Jimenez. “It was just a lot of fun working with the American Red Cross. The group that worked our blood drive was very friendly and even answered questions that we had as medical assistants about phlebotomy.”
Toni Fox, coordinator for American Red Cross stated, “Ross students did a great job on your blood drive and getting the community members involved. We collected a total of 30 good units! Ross students helped save over 90 lives of patients needing blood products.”