VA Hospital receives 19 pints of frat blood

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner

VA Hospital officials had reason to give thanks during the Thanksgiving holiday for the badly needed blood they received from Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity pledges.

The pledges donated19 pints of blood throughout the month of November, said Tom Rhoads, Sigma Alpha Epsilon's faculty adviser and professor in the finance department.

"The pledge class and some of the actives donated blood during the month of November because they wanted to so something good for the community," Rhoads said.

This recent blood drive came at the appropriate time. There has been a blood shortage nationwide, and it was reported Long Beach Memorial had less than 50 percent of its Type-O blood inventory during the summer.

"It helped us tremendously due to the serious blood shortage that was experienced through the country," said Debbie Ludke, donor coordinator at the VA Hospital.

The shortage usually occurs during the summer months and the holidays, she said. But this year, the shortage has lasted even longer, and she expects the shortage to continue through the holiday season.

Rhoads said the hospital expected about 50 percent acceptance of college students. But, there was a 100 percent acceptance.

"You can go to the people, the members and ask them to do things and they'll go out and do them," he said. "That commitment is reflected in doing things that support the organization and the community."

Though this was the first year that they had done this, Rhoads and the fraternity plan to do this every semester.

"We just started to do this because it's a good thing to do," Rhoads said. "Maybe we decided to do it because it was a responsible thing to do."