After a week of gathering donations, a group of about 400 volunteers wrapped up the 1998 Fall Blood Drive at Iowa State.

Headed by co-chairwomen Lisa Flint, senior in marketing, and Marsha Pinger, junior in speech communication, the drive collected 1,560 blood donations.

Although the number of first-time donors and volunteers was up this year, the blood drive still fell short of its intended goal.

“Our goal of 2,200 was extremely challenging, but we kept recruiting as much as we could,” said Brooke Doering, publicity chairwoman for the blood drive and sophomore in journalism and mass communication.

“You can’t get too discouraged about the donors you didn’t get to come in. With an event like this, each individual blood donor does make a difference, so even if our total number wasn’t what we wanted, it is important to remember that every single one of those blood donors helped improve or even save someone’s life,” she said.

Flint said the donated blood can be broken down into many elements for specific needs or used as a whole blood transfusion.

“Up to three patients can benefit from one blood donation,” Flint said.

Flint said one reason the committee did not meet its goal is because the numbers are based on the amount of donations the centers can handle.

Flint said the number of blood donors per hour depended upon how many blood centers were present at the drive on that day.

“Each center probably saw between 10 and 30 per hour, depending on the time and day,” she said.

Representatives from blood banks in Ottumwa, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Omaha, Neb. and Ames were collecting the donations.

“Our numbers have been decreasing over the last few years,” Flint said. “It’s disappointing when the numbers go down, but [1,560] is a huge number of blood donations, and we just have to feel good about getting that many people to come in,” she said.

Flint also said she was happy about the number of first-time donors who participated.

“It seemed like we saw more first-time donors than usual this week. I was very pleased to see that because once someone tries giving blood, they will usually keep doing it regularly,” she said.

Flint said she hopes next year’s numbers will start to increase again.

“As long as this blood drive continues, it will be a success,” she said. “This is an enormous blood drive. Most drives only last one day and are with only one blood center participating. Here at Iowa State, we have five days and six blood centers.”

And there is a possibility that the blood drive will expand to include evening and weekend donations, Flint said.

“If this is possible, it could increase participation considerably,” she said.