Less than five percent of the population participates in blood donation, so it seems evident that giving blood isn’t an easy task for most people.

LifeShare Community Blood Services has decided to provide an incentive to those who help.  

“When I signed up, I figured that an hour of unpleasantry would be worth it to save three lives,” freshman English major Allison Madar said. “It wasn’t bad at all.”

LifeShare hosts multiple blood drives each semester, and each donation of blood received is put towards a scholarship fund at Kent State.

“For every 50 donations we collect at Kent State from June 1, 2018 through May 31, 2019, we give KSU a $500.00 LifeShare Scholarship towards a student’s tuition,” Donor Recruitment Representative Katy Neff said.

The need for blood in the nation is at a high, and patients are in need of blood every two seconds. LifeShare holds blood drives throughout Northeast Ohio 24/7 to try meet the requirement of blood from hospitals in the area.

“When we are not able to fill the hospitals demands,” Neff said. “Treatments and surgeries are cancelled or postponed.”

Students do not need to have ever given blood in order to apply for LifeShare’s scholarship. However, LifeShare is always looking for new donors who don’t mind taking some time out of their day to help save at least three lives with each pint of blood given.

“I find it really cool that there’s a smaller place to give blood,” sophomore life science major Margaret Kaminski said. “At different blood drives, it can take up to two hours to wait in line and give blood, but here it’s in and out.”

The first blood drive of the semester will be taking place Sept. 5 and 6 at the Student Center from 1-7 p.m. The total number of sign-ups for each day of the drive total to 103 donations, all of which could equal to almost $1,000 in scholarships.

“Blood donation truly saves lives,” Neff said. “There is no replacement for blood, and the need is very real.”

To apply for the LifeShare Scholarship, students can visit LifeShare’s website at www.lifeshare.cc.

Lexi Marco is the health reporter. Contact her at [email protected].