This year the Office of Student Life has once again decided to sponsor a blood drive at the Milwaukee Area Technical College Downtown Milwaukee Campus. The event took place on Monday, September 8th at the S Building 3rd floor cafeteria, where American Red Cross volunteers were happy to assist people in donating their blood.The American Red Cross provides relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to

emergencies.

People who are generous enough to donate their blood help accident victims, as well as people who need liver and heart transplants, cancer and leukemia patients, people with sickle cell anemia, patients receiving open heart surgery, patients receiving bone marrow transplants and people who may have incurred severe burns.

Sarah Helding, a staff member here at MATC says, “I have never done it before (given blood) and I’ve always wanted to and I thought this would be a good time to do it.” When asked if she would consider giving blood again, she replied, “Sure.”

Another donor, Jason Schmidding, is a sophomore and a history major here at MATC. When asked about why he donates blood, Jason replied, “My mom always donated blood and I haven’t been to a blood drive in quite some time.I saw it was here and I figured why not.”

Although Jason has not donated blood in a while, he said he would donate again when the opportunity comes up.

The American Red Cross website states that it “is the largest and most diverse service organization in the United States, having touched the life of virtually every citizen in some way through an array of humanitarian services.”

The MATC Times would like to thank the American Red Cross for coming to the MATC Downtown Milwaukee Campus as well as the people who willingly donated their blood.