The National 2012 Cesar Chavez Blood Drive took place at the Falcon Square on April 23 to 24 from 8AM to 8PM.

There was a raffle for a one-year movie theatre pass for those students who signed up. The winners will be announced on May 15. Also those who donated blood received a T-shirt.

The organization started in 2009, and was named after Cesar Chavez, “to celebrate his name,” according to physics major Julio Castro.

Castro explains more about the Blood drive and its purpose.

“The purpose of the blood drive today, is mainly to focus on the National Cesar Chavez Blood Drive. The blood drive is named after Cesar Chavez to celebrate his name, collaborate and work together on making sure we get a lot more donars and save more lives. One pint of blood can save three lives.”

Castro Continues, “We’ve been doing this since 2009, which is when the Cesar Chavez Blood Drive organization started and the goal every year is to get more campuses to get involved and to donate blood. This year we are hoping to get about 100 hundred people to donate blood per day. Yesterday we have accomplished that goal, and we are hoping to do the same today.

Rob Torrez is a Field Manager from the American Red Cross. He has been in the Red Cross for 20 years and has been coming to Cerritos College for 19 years.

Torrez describes the qualifications for those who want to donate Blood.

“The qualifications are fairly simple. In the state of California you can be 16 years of age and be able to donate blood with consent of a parent. However, if you are 17 years of age or older, you can donate blood without a parent’s consent.

“Everybody who plans on donating has to be at least 110 pounds or heavier, they must also be in good health on the day they are donating blood meaning no sicknesses. Everyone who donates in the state of California and in the United states, must live here at least three years of there life.

“The last qualification that is very simple. Everyone must posses a photo ID in order to donate blood.

There were some rules that applied for students that wanted to donate their blood.

Torrez explains who can’t donate blood, regarding illnesses.

“The American Red Cross applies by the rules from the Food and Drug Administration. It considers blood to be a drug so we have to apply for many rules. One of the things we want to make sure we cover with our college students is that anyone can donate with tattoos as long as the last tattoo is at least one year old or older.” Also body Piercing, as long as it is clean, done profesionally and there is no infection on the pierce they are also able to donate blood.”

He also explains about donating students with infectious diseases.

Now in term of the testing of the blood,all the blood that is taken from cerritos college is taken to our laboratories. Then it will be tested for all infectious diseases. We test for HIV, gonorrhea syphilis, herpes hepititus and other infectous diseases.

We also have a blood testing for bloodand we will see if it will come out positive or not so we can send it to our local hospitals. When you donate 1 pint of blood you save 3 lives.