Northwestern College’s spring Blood Drive a success at Oak Lawn Campus

On Wednesday, May 18, Northwestern College’s Oak Lawn Campus (7725 S. Harlem Avenue) opened its doors to the community and hosted an extremely successful 2016 Blood Drive! Students, faculty, staff and members of the public all participated in the four hour event facilitated by the Heartland Blood Center and sponsored by the College’s Medical Assisting Department.

This year’s Blood Drive yielded twenty six (26) pints of blood, nearly doubling last year’s results. However, fifty two (52) potential donors had actually come through the doors looking to donate. Unfortunately the wait time to give due to so many donors in line resulted in some students having to head to class and forego the donation. Others were deferred due to low iron counts, spring colds and being on antibiotics, or for recent travel outside of the country.

Each donor received a free pint of ice cream from Baskin Robbins – Heartland’s “Pint for a Pint” initiative – as a token of gratitude.

Special thanks to Medical Assisting Program Coordinator Alan Cwidak-Mosley for facilitating the event alongside Heartland, and for the volunteer efforts of a number of Medical Assisting students who aided with the efforts.