The American Red Cross held a blood drive for students and community members to donate blood at Cerritos College on Sept. 11 through 12.

9/11 as most people remember was a tragedy that took the lives of thousands in 2001. As this day still carries great heaviness, people have donated blood to the American Red Cross to help save the lives of others.

Many students showed up to participate including Paul Boyd-Batstone who donates his blood to the Red Cross 24 times a year.

“I’m retired so I wanna give back to the community, one thing that I deeply appreciate about donating to the Red Cross is that when I go and donate blood it goes out to help somebody.”

“You know it’s one of the most valuable things I could give away I like facilitating other people because it expands the donations,” said Boyd-Batstone

Expand is the correct word to use because according to the American Red Cross each year, an estimated 6.8 million people in the U.S. donate blood. 13.6 million units of whole blood and red blood cells are collected in the U.S. in a year. This includes 1 million platelet donations.

More statistics show that The Red Cross provides about 40% of our nation’s blood and blood components, all from generous volunteer donors.

A few people explained why they decided to participate and donate blood to the Red Cross.

“Just helping people out, it’s something I’m really passionate about. I just like doing what I can for the community, anyway I can help people out I will do that,” said Elizabeth Chaves a student at Cerritos College.

Jennifer Vanderham, a Norwalk resident expressed that she does this as much as she can.

“I like to do this quite a few times, whenever they have this at the school I do try to make an effort to volunteer,” said Jennifer Vanderham.

“Well, I’ve been donating since high school, so I just continue to do it because it’s good to help people and then you get a free t-shirt,” said Angie Campos a student at Cerritos College. “Overall, I’ve volunteered maybe like 10 times.”

The American Red Cross works with thousands of students each year in their life-saving mission.

When you donate blood, you have the ability to save lives, as 1 in 7 hospital patients require blood transfusions.

If you would like to donate and missed the opportunity here at Cerritos, download the Blood Donor app on your smartphone device where you can find nearby blood drives.

You could also set an appointment and find out when your blood donation is being given to a patient.