Wilfrid Laurier holds first blood drive since COVID-19 pandemic

Students and staff at Wilfrid Laurier University rolled up their sleeves as part of the Giving is Golden blood drive.

The drive, on January 29, was the first blood at the Waterloo campus since the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of the drive was on new donors, as part of Canadian Blood Donor Services’ national goal of 450 new donors a day.

Tammy Moroudas, the Community Development Manager of Donor Relations at Canadian Blood Services said the turnout for Wednesday’s drive was “very strong.”

“I’m so impress with the school from beginning to end from organizing it to booking it to promoting it,” said Moroudas. “It’s amazing to see such a great response from the student body and also from staff as well.”

Final numbers from the drive show 68 first time donors attended last week’s drive, collecting 84 of 80 units of blood. One first time donor, second year student Chloe, said she came out for a personal reason.

“My father was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and I spent the summer in the hospital with him,” said Chloe. “You really realize how greatly needed donating blood and plasma is to our Canadian health care system.”

Another first time donor, fourth year Avani, said she was motivated to come out because it was a great time to give back.

“My roommate’s sister needs blood transfusions every few weeks,” said Avani. “It seems like an hour of my time and it helps all these people.”

A spokesperson for the school said Laurier is a member of the Canadian Blood Services’ Partners for Life program. Since joining the program, they say Laurier blood donors have “contributed more than 5.000 donations to Canada’s Lifeline.”