Students went to the Residence Dining Hall Tuesday night to give away a resource vital to life — their blood.

The Central California Blood Center collected 55 pints of blood and registered 74 donors””surpassing their goal of 42 pints””at their kick-off event Tuesday night. The blood drive will continue through Thursday at multiple locations on campus.

Laura Geuvjehizian, who works in donor recruitment for the blood center, said it was a busy night.
“We’ve never seen it this busy on a kick-off night. We definitely like it, and we appreciate it,” she said.

The blood center gave away mustache T-shirts and buy-one, get-one-free vouchers to the Big Fresno Fair to people who donated blood.

Geuvjehizian said there were a lot of first-time donors Tuesday night, and 22-year-old Sophie Powell was one of them.

“I had surgery when I was younger and I had to have a blood donation from my mother so I wanted to give back,” she said.

Powell, who is majoring in communicative disorders and deaf studies with an emphasis in interpreting, was excited to get her T-shirt.

Katie Belmore said the convenience of the blood drive is why she donates blood.

“It’s here, so I might as well,” Belmore said.

Belmore said she donated blood in high school so the needle didn’t scare her. Her arm was wrapped in medical adhesive tape and topped with a bow.

Geuvjehizian said the blood center takes all blood types and always needs every blood type.

She said the blood center advises donors to eat a good meal at least four hours before they donate and drink plenty of water.

In order to give blood without parental consent, one must be 17-years-old, weigh 110 pounds, and have good blood pressure, normal iron levels and a normal temperature. Donors must also fill out a 50-question survey that asks lifestyle health questions.