For the first time this semester, Cosumnes River College will host the Vitalant Bloodmobile for a campus-wide blood drive on Nov. 21. Students are encouraged to donate blood and enter a Vitalant raffle to win one of three $10,000 gift cards between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1.

College Nurse Michelle Barkley said that she restarted this program after Vitalant, previously BloodSource, reached out to the school to try and get more donors.

“This campus is a great place to recruit people to donate,” Barkley said.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a three-year hiatus from the blood drive, and Barkley said that getting the momentum going again has been difficult.

“We’re still a person short of meeting our goal so we really want to spread the message,” Barkley said.

The Bloodmobile will be in parking lot F, next to the Winn center, from 11 a.m to 2 p.m. Donors are encouraged to eat well and drink plenty of water before arriving.

Matt Petrinovich, the parent of a CRC student, said he always wanted to donate blood, so he looked up what his blood type was most useful for and went down to a donation center for the first time in June and has been donating every 10 weeks since.

“I thought it was a very giving thing to do, you can literally save people’s lives by just sitting in a chair for 20 minutes,” Petrinovich said.

If the process goes smoothly, donated blood can be received by someone in need in as little as two and a half days, according to Joseph Ruiz, senior manager of distribution at Vitalant.

“The impact behind donating blood means someone gets a few more days, weeks or even a lifetime,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said that whether they receive one donor or 100, the process is still the same to ensure that the blood is properly tested for someone to receive. One donation can yield three different products that can be used to help three different people.

“We all have some sort of connection to someone who may have needed blood,” Ruiz said. “It’s really easy to make it personal to want to help.”

While his department is in charge of safely packaging and distributing blood to the hospitals that need it, Ruiz says his job is more than that.

“You know, at the end of it, our mission is saving lives,” Ruiz said.

If students are unable to donate blood during the blood drive and would still like to donate, they will be welcomed at any one of Vitalant’s donation centers.

“People forget that blood doesn’t just appear here magically, people have to actually go out and donate for us to be able to help,” Ruiz said.