National Capital Region Alumni Association kicks off VirginiaTechforLife nationwide blood drive program in Alexandria; second drive scheduled April 16 at Northern Virginia Center

The National Capital Region Virginia Tech Alumni Association kicked off the VirginiaTechforLife campaign at the local office of the American Red Cross in Old Town Alexandria on April 1. This was the first of more than 30 blood drives sponsored by Virginia Tech alumni chapters across the country during the month of April,

A second blood drive, at the Northern Virginia Center, 7054 Haycock Road, will be held on April 16, from 2 to 8 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are preferred. To set up an appointment to donate
call: 1 800-GIVE LIFE.

The blood drives are being held in tribute to the lives lost on April 16, 2007. There is an immediate need for most blood types. More than 200 blood and platelet donations are needed every day by patients at hospitals served by the Red Cross. Blood and platelets help many people, including trauma patients, surgery patients, newborn babies, cancer patients, and transplant patients. Many of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings needed immediate blood transfusions and are alive today because of blood donors.

Debbie Day, associate vice president, and Cathy Lally, assistant to the vice president, Alumni Association, Alumni Relations, in Blacksburg, traveled to Alexandria to help with the kickoff. Lally has had a special interest in a nationwide community service project for a number of years and volunteered to coordinate the VirginiaTechforLife program when it was suggested at a chapter officers training meeting last fall.

To support the drive in Alexandria, graduate students from the Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC) -- Keri Kennedy, vice president of the student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and Amber Wirth, Community Service Chair for the student chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) -- led a recruitment effort to encourage their fellow students to donate blood. They put up posters, and provided some incentives by soliciting discount coupons for donors from a local coffee house, Café Bongo, giving away VT Engage pens and WAAC stickers, and raffliing off two WAAC t-shirts.

Posted April 9, 2008