Fordham University held a two-day blood drive in the Rose Hill McShane Student Center Ballroom Feb. 3 – 4. The blood drive is part of a 20-year partnership between Fordham and the New York Blood Center (NYBC).
There were a total of 89 sign ups for the first day of the drive, according to Donor Relations Associate for NYBC C.J. Hernandez, and roughly 160 sign ups across both days, according to Keith Eldredge, associate vice president and dean of Student Affairs.
However, their donation appointments do not always translate directly to actual donations, as according to Eldredge, as some people don’t show up and others walk-in with no appointment. But while some scheduled donors will not be attending, Eldredge noted that walk-in donors often help offset those absences.
“I think it’d be great if we could get 100 people each day, so 200 total for the drive,” Eldredge said ahead of the drive. The blood drives hosted at Fordham primarily target college-aged donors who, Eldgredge explained, are important for creating repeat and also long-term donation habits.
“Typically, you get mostly repeat donors,” he said. “Once somebody makes a donation, they’re much more likely to donate again in the future.”
While the blood drive was predominantly targeted for and at Fordham students, all members of the Bronx community were welcome to participate.
“They worked with Richie Gonzalez, the community member congressman in the neighborhood,” Eldredge said. “So they really encouraged folks that live outside of our gates in the Bronx to come to campus for a blood drive.”
When they had admitted non-Fordham students into campus, public safety ensures proper protocol, according to Eldredge.
“If somebody came in and wanted to access the campus and it didn’t seem appropriate for them to do that, [if] they seemed like they were posing a threat to the community, public safety wouldn’t allow them on campus,” Eldredge said.
Hosting a blood drive that is open to the Bronx community members and the Fordham students is very aligned with Fordham’s Jesuit mission, according to Eldredge. The act of donating blood reflects Fordham’s Jesuit values by encouraging students towards thinking about others besides themselves and to prioritizing service and care for others.
“Part of that should also be doing for others in some way, call it the Jesuit Catholic spirit,” said Eldredge.
Megan Kuck, GSB ’26, had donated blood at the event and said she donates blood for a simple reason.
“I have it, I might as well give it to other people,” she said. She also said she first became motivated to donate blood after a girl in her high school got into a fatal car accident. “I think of her whenever I donate blood,” Kuck said.
But not all students who attended Fordham’s drive were eligible to donate blood. Ella Pombo, GSB ’28, said she was told she has low hemoglobin, which prevented her from participating in the drive. Hemoglobin screenings are required to ensure donors have enough of healthy red blood cells to safely give blood without risking their own health. She said she has donated blood three times before and that this is the first time she hasn’t been able to.
“It’s something I’ve been doing since high school,” she had said. “[It] just feels like something nice to do.” Fordham’s prospective donors must also complete health screenings and questionnaires administered by NYBC staff to ensure safety of donations, according to Eldredge.
Eldredge also had said that the collaboration between Fordham and NYBC operates as a service-based partnership, with no financial benefit to either party.
“We don’t charge them to use the space …, and they don’t pay us anything,” said Eldredge.
Fordham hosts one two-day drive per semester, with the exception of a one-day drive in the summer of 2025.
“We only do a one-day drive in the summer because we just know there’s not going to be that much demand to spread it out over two days,” said Eldredge on future drives.
