Air Force ROTC cadets co-host blood drive with American Red Cross

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Cadet Lemuel Lee

Cadet Kyle Eich gives a thumbs up while donating blood at the recent Air Force ROTC/American Red Cross Blood Drive at the Gordon Field House.

The Rochester Institute of Technology Air Force ROTC Detachment 538 collected 64 pints of blood from the campus community at a blood drive with the local American Red Cross on Jan. 15. The Red Cross set a goal that day of collecting 40 forty pints of blood and, with the help of the Air Force ROTC detachment, they surpassed the goal.

January is National Blood donor month. In response to this, Dunkin’ Donuts teamed up with the Red Cross to start the Give a pint, get a Pound program for the second year in a row. Participants at the RIT donor drive were able to receive a pound of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee after donating blood.

According to the Red Cross there is a need to collect 3,000 units of blood daily to meet the demands of area hospitals in the northeast. The Air Force ROTC Detachment 538 has participated annually in the drive.

“From the beginning, the American Red Cross has formed a community of service, of generous, strong, and decent people bound by beliefs beyond themselves,” says Air Force ROTC cadet Daniel Bourgeois, who helped to organize the event. “The American Red Cross blood donor embodies this principle, which is perfectly reflected in the cadets of Detachment 538. We’d like to extend a gracious thank you to those who gave at the blood drive.”