(November 23, 2004) -- “Should I even do this?!” exclaimed ASB treasurer and first time blood donor senior Jenny Lee as she threw her arms down onto the folding bed. She then proceeded to nimbly climb aboard, with shaking extremities and with quick deep breaths. Her racing heart is a clear indication of her nerves going haywire. The needle inches closer to piercing through her vein and to tap into an underground pipeline overflowing with red gold.

Lee’s reflex towards fear and acute discomfort was nothing new to Dave Keys, blood supply coordinator for the Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center. He said that just earlier that day, a Clark student started laughing uncontrollably while in the process of donating blood.

“These people in here are a rare breed,” Keys said as he observed the auditeria crawling with blood donating students and faculty. He said that the need for blood in Glendale Memorial is very urgent because blood only has a shelf life of about 40-42 days. Glendale Memorial Hospital uses 250-350 pints of blood every month, and about 60 pints of those will be coming from Clark. Leukemia and cancer patients need the new blood the most, according to Keys.

Though Clark is helping ease the shortage in Glendale Memorial, there are times when life saving surgeries has to be postponed due to the lack of reserved blood. The problem, according to Keys, is that “most people don’t donate blood,” an activity Keys sees as a person’s civic duty.

ASB Director of Activities Sandra Belderian said that Clark’s third annual blood drive was a “big time” success, attracting a total of 95 interested student donors and getting over 60 pints of blood. According to Belderian, due to the success of this blood drive, another will be set up some time during second semester.

A student donor’s day started with Belderian calling them out of their class. Then the student had to fill out a questionnaire that asked about diseases, sexual activity and whether that person has traveled outside the United States. Following that, a nurse took the student’s blood pressure and temperature. The nurse then pricked the student’s finger and took a sample of blood in order to check for anemia, or iron deficiency.

Senior Maral Mirzayan described this process as the “most painful part” of the day.

Some students had to be turned down because they had traveled into countries where diseases like malaria are common or because they lacked iron in their blood stream, like senior Michelle Biglarian.

“I was disappointed I couldn’t help people. I wasn’t even nervous,” said Biglarian.

Throughout the day some students fainted and had dizzy spells after they had donated. Keys said that this was because those students hadn’t eaten for the day.

Senior Sam Hong lay on the bed longer than usual because he “felt like throwing up” right after. He then confessed that he hadn’t eaten the entire day.

Most students were excited, although nervous, at this opportunity. Senior Jason Saboury said he “couldn’t wait to get it over with.” On another bed a couple of feet away from Saboury, senior Christopher Balassanian said, “I’m feeling great. I’m feeling strong.”

Clark’s blood drive was such a success that even former students from Clark such as Class of 2004 alumni Erik Dalir came back and donated blood. “I was just visiting, so might as well,” said Dalir.

After donating blood, students had the choice between getting a “Pint for a pint” coupon at Baskin Robbins or a shirt. A millisecond of discomfort seems to be a good trade off for missing a class, a shirt or a pint of ice cream and also a good feeling that you, according to Balassanian, were “helping out society.”