Contact information: 413/775-1609
Web link:

Contact: Gail Villeneuve
Phone: 413/775-1609
E-mail: villeneuve@gcc.mass.edu

Media contact: Liz Carroll
Marketing & Publications
413/775-1420 | carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Release date: October 15, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"We need blood!" say GCC nursing students

GCC nursing students need blood for a Red Cross Blood Drive on Wednesday, November 5 from 12 to 5 at the GCC Downtown Center.

"We have a goal of 50 pints," says Ana Ferreira, Donor recruitment Representative for the American Red Cross Blood Services. "It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's not easy to get 50 donors to come in."

Reaching that goal is the job of six first-year and six second-year GCC nursing students, led by Michele Mieczkowski of Whately. "It's a lot of phone calling and hanging posters," Mieczkowski says. "We're going to be contacting radio stations and newspapers to get the word out, and we're going to local businesses to try to get donations for juice and cookies afterwards. So the legwork is our job."

The blood drive is just one of numerous service learning projects that GCC nursing students must complete as part of their coursework. "Nursing isn't only patient care," Mieczkowski explains. "It's also education and organizational skills. You have to learn how to organize and prioritize."

The need for blood is on-going, according to Ferreira. "People don't realize how much blood is actually used on a daily basis. Every two seconds someone in this country uses blood, and it's for a variety of things. The most common use is cancer patients, because chemotherapy kills the cancer but it also wreaks havoc on the patient's body. A lot of times their bone marrow will stop producing healthy blood cells, so they'll need to get blood transfusions just to make it through the treatment."

"If your loved one ever needed to receive blood," Mieczkowski says, "you'd really want it to be there."

"We like to see people sign up ahead of time," Ferreira says. "That way, we can control the donor flow and get people in and out in a timely fashion. But we certainly never turn anybody away if they're a walk-in."

GCC nursing students will be on hand during the blood drive to answer questions and assess donors after they give blood. To sign up to give blood on November 5, please call Gail Villeneuve at (413) 775-1609 with your preferred time and phone number. Or email villeneuve@gcc.mass.edu. Students will be making reminder calls the day before.