75 CCTC students take part

GETAWAY — Nursing and phlebotomy students at Collins Career Technical Center hosted a blood drive for the American Red Cross on Friday.

Members of the Red Cross, from Huntington, assisted the students in the effort.

Angie Fisher, team sponsor for the event, said the campus hosts the event twice a year.

“Oh, it’s great,” she said of turnout. “It keeps getting better every year.”

Fisher said about 75 students took part in the effort.

With summer coming to an end, the Red Cross urges people to give blood and platelets to help end an emergency summer blood shortage that began in July.

“The Red Cross is in critical need since many regular donors delay giving blood to take final summer vacations and prepare for the start of school,” a news release stated. “To ensure lifesaving treatments remain available for patients in the coming weeks, donations are needed now, especially type O.”

The Red Cross provides about 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply, and currently, Red Cross blood products are being distributed to hospitals as fast as donations come in.

They have to collect more than 13,000 donations every day for patients at about 2,600 hospitals and transfusion centers nationwide. Accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients, and patients receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease may all require blood to help save their lives.

To make an appointment to donate blood, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call -800-733-2767.