By Sondra Rodriguez, Student Reporter

A blood donor loses about one pint of blood per donation, and each donation can save three lives. ACU students donated a total 75 pints of blood, providing medical help for about 300 victims of Hurricane Gustav Sept. 12 and 13 in the Teague Special Events Center.

Four times that amount was expected, but David Vanderpool, organizer of the drive, said, “Seventy-five is better than zero.”

Vanderpool, junior English, biblical text and premed major from Nashville, Tenn., was contacted by the president of Harding University one week before the blood drive and asked to take on the project.”

He told me he was trying to organize a friendly intercollegiate competition between Church of Christ universities to see who can raise the most blood for Hurricane Gustav victims,”he said.

Vanderpool agreed to organize and publicize the drive. With only a week to prepare, he said more time was needed for a bigger turnout.

“It was a last moment deal; they contacted me on Friday, and it happened a week later,” he said.

The Students’ Association officers helped Vanderpool with advertising; he made a Chapel announcement and placed fliers around campus.

He said if students had been given more notice and the event did not take place on a Friday night and Saturday morning, the turnout would have been greater.

Chris Herrington, junior architecture interior design major from Abilene, donated his blood Saturday.

“It saves lives,” he said. “I feel like blood is life; so as Jesus Christ shed blood for us, I shed my blood for others-it’s a good cause.”

The next blood drive on campus will be Sept. 30 in the Campus Center’s Living Room, sponsored by the Virtuous African Heritage Sisterhood for the local Meek Blood Clinic.