To give or not to give ?” students will have to make the choice when the blood drive comes to campus Monday and Tuesday.

BloodSource, a blood services provider for Northern and Central California, will host this semester’s first blood drive from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the University Union Redwood Room. People willing to donate may stop by without an appointment, setting aside at least one hour for the entire process.

The blood drive will only accept whole blood donations, in which a single collection is then tested and separated into plasma, platelets and red blood cells, according to the Bloodsource website.

The recipients of blood donations include surgery patients, cancer patients and accident victims. They rely on whole blood and its specific components.

“You have the potential with one donation to save up to three lives, so you’re really touching a tremendous amount of people,” said Elizabeth Bates, the account manager in charge of the Sacramento State blood drive.

Bates explained via telephone that 700 units of blood need to be collected each day just to supply every hospital BloodSource serves ?” more than 40 of them in 25 counties. While this amount is overwhelming, BloodSource manages to collect a steady supply, thanks to its own vast community of donors.

Bates said past blood drives at Sac State have had large turnouts.

“It’s a wonderful site to have a blood drive because [people are] so responsive and want to help the community,” Bates said. “It’s terrific to see so many people out there on one day.”

For some students, the thought of needles alone may keep them from donating.

“Needles don’t really scare me, but I did have a friend who fainted,” said Joan Silva, a senior at UC Davis who donated at the BloodSource main center in Sacramento.

As for the pain, frequent donor Richard Yarnot said, “People hurt themselves all the time. If you can take that, why can’t you take the needle? The needle is not big!”

Yarnot himself donates platelets every two weeks and admits that he has always possessed a tolerance for pain.

Before donating, BloodSource recommends that people eat a full meal and drink plenty of fluids within four hours.

BloodSource staff will only allow donors who are in good health, are at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds and have photo identification or a BloodSource Donor Card.

Potential donors will undergo further testing for eligibility, beginning with an interview conducted by a BloodSource staff member regarding personal health issues such as medication usage and sexual activity. All of this remains confidential and is necessary in to ensure patients receive safe blood.

Potential donors will also have their temperatures and pulses taken, and a small sample of blood taken from a prick of the fingertip is used to test for red blood cell levels and iron efficiency.

Some people may be temporarily deferred if they have recently had a tattoo or body piercing, undergone surgery or traveled to an area where Malaria or Mad Cow Disease is present.

Once eligibility is determined, a nurse or a phlebotomist (a medical professional trained in drawing blood) leads the donor into a reclined chair where blood pressure is first taken. The donor’s arm is then cleansed and a sterile needle is inserted into the vein.

The needle is connected to a collection bag on a weighing scale, ensuring that donors give only the needed amount of whole blood ?” normally a pint. The overall blood-drawing process takes about five to seven minutes, said Angelica Sandoval, a licensed vocational nurse working at the BloodSource main center.

All of the blood collected at the blood drive will be tested before being distributed.

“No matter where in Sacramento blood is collected ?” everything comes to the main center where we do all the testing and then do all the deliveries to different areas where it is needed,” Sandoval said.

After giving blood, donors must spend 10-15 minutes resting and replenishing their fluids via complementary beverages and snacks.

Hugh Booth, a frequent donor, volunteered his time to running the snack bar at the BloodSource main center, offering donors anything from popcorn to cookies and nachos. Booth, who has been donating blood since 1959, recalled the kind of “treats” donors used to get afterwards.

“When I went to Sac State, I was too young to get the whiskey ?” they gave you a shot back then,” Booth said.

Aside from giving whole blood, anyone interested may sign up to be on a registry of eligible bone marrow donors. Normally, the sign-up fee is $50, but the fee will be waived for the Sac State Blood Drive.

The foundation of the National Marrow Donor Program will have recruiters at the blood drive on Tuesday, Sept. 26, with plenty of information on the process.

Shawn Ramos, a bone marrow recruiter specialist, explains that the process of matching donors to patients is much more challenging because bone marrow relies on an exact genetic match.

“We’ve been able to facilitate 25,000 transplants, which is not very many because there are 35,000 new cases a year,” Ramos said on the phone. She also cited the difficulty in finding a match for minorities.

“Minorities are really encouraged to come and help out,” Ramos added.

For more information on donating blood or bone marrow, visit www.bloodsource.org.

Karen Balmes can be reached at [email protected]