Since Sept. 11, 2001, hundreds of young men and women have shed their blood in the Middle East in the name of America's war on terrorism.
On Sept. 11, 2003, 85 faculty, staffers, students and community members gathered at the Palestra to give their blood in patriotic spirit, as well, for a "Remembrance, Reflection and Community" blood drive organized by the Penn American Red Cross Team.
The event, which ran from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., was one of the main commemorative activities held on campus yesterday.
"We felt that having this blood drive is a good opportunity for people who do want to do something on September 11," said Brian Keller, the president of ARCT and a Wharton and Engineering sophomore.
Blood donor and College sophomore Diana Vining said that "even though the University didn't do anything official, students are still taking it into their own hands to remember."
College freshman Jenny Royer, a frequent blood donor, said that besides her Calculus teacher taking a few minutes to reflect, giving blood was her major act of remembrance for the day.
Whereas "last year it was very important to commemorate what happened, this year is more of an opportunity for personal reflection and personal experience and opportunities for services such as giving blood," said Matthew Scafidi, the ARCT director of communications and a College junior.
The Penn chapter of ARCT is merely a year old -- it was sparked in part by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The organization works directly with the American Red Cross in the Penn/Jersey region to organize and recruit for blood drives.
Scafidi said that "blood donations are at emergency lows at this point, and they have been for some time."
However, Keller added that "in response to September 11, Americans came out to donate like they never did before."
The two-year anniversary drew a particularly large crowd of donors yesterday, as the ARCT had expected.
Each drive has a target number for the amount of pints of blood it hopes to collect. "It was set at 55 [pints], which is a pretty high goal, and when we saw the response, we upped it to 70," Scafidi said.
They made their goal exactly -- with 70 productive pints donated, 12 deferrals and three incomplete donations.
Red Cross nurse Catherine Antkowiak, the managing nurse at the event, was pleased with the "phenomenal turnout," noting that the drive drew from 18-20 people per hour. In fact, it became so crowded that some walk-in donors had to be turned down.
While donors flowed into the Palestra as rapidly as their blood did into the plastic pouches, a new online registration method kept the event especially organized.
The Web site -- penn.givesblood.org -- allows people to pre-register for blood drives electronically. ARCT also uses the venue to post updates about future blood drives to be held in the area.
The ARCT will be holding blood drives on Sept. 15 in the lower lobby of the Nursing Education building, Sept. 30 in the Hall of Flags and Nov. 4 in the Hill College House atrium.
