UC Irvine had its mobile blood bank come on Thursday to Costa Mesa High School, the second one in this academic year, in order to sign up volunteers for donating blood so that it could be given to people in need of it. The UC Irvine Medical Center was able to have CMHS sponsor a blood drive, which has no cost associated with it for the school, (meaning its free), to help with their search for viable blood donors. Eighty people signed up with ASB members for the event on Thursday, although the orchestrator of the event thought perhaps up to 100 people may show up, which means that around 75 units of blood was the expected gain of the day.

According to the leader of the event at our school, Ann Marie Clubd, the UC Irvine Medical Center transfuses over a thousand blood products in their runs and is the only level one trauma center in the Orange County area. This means that the UC Irvine Medical Center is largely responsible for transfusing blood to those who are in dire need of it; such as premature babies, men, or women that have gone through severe trauma and cancer patients whose disease or chemotherapy detriments the blood making process. Their actions match their slogan, “Blood donations truly are the 'gift of life' for patients in need.”

First time blood donor Michelle Luna, CMHS Junior, stated when asked about her opinions on donating blood, “I think giving blood helps other people and it’s a good experience because we need to reach out and help people when they need it most.”

When asked about why The Red Cross no longer handles the blood donating in Costa Mesa High School Ann Marie Clubd said, “The Activities Director chooses to have the blood drive here, it’s up to the activities director to see who they want to have a blood drive with and they chose to have it with the UC Irvine Medical Center. But there are many different types of people they can have blood drives with whether it be Red Cross or the UC Irvine Medical Center but in this case ASB chose to have it with the UC Irvine Medical Center.”