Atlanta Technical College allied health students will host an American Red Cross Community Blood Drive on Monday, March 2.  The public is invited to visit the campus located at 1560 Metropolitan Parkway, SW from 10am to 3 pm to volunteer to donate blood.  The event will be held in the Brenda Watts Jones Allied Health & Technology Complex.

To be eligible to give blood, donors must be at least 17 years old (16 years old with parental consent), weigh 110 pounds or more and be in good health. While the actual donation of blood typically takes 8-10 minutes, participants are asked to allot 30 minutes for the entire process. Volunteer donors should eat a light meal and drink plenty of fluids prior to arriving at the venue.

Each participant should bring a driver’s license or two other forms of identifications to the site.  To ensure the safety of blood donation for donors and recipients, all volunteer will undergo a brief screening to determine their eligibility to give blood.  During this process, a list of all medications being consumed should be provided to the American Red Cross staff at the event.  Upon completion of the donation process, volunteers will be briefly monitored by staff and should be able to resume normal routine.

The American Red Cross recommend that donors wait at least eight weeks (56 days) between donations of whole blood and 16 weeks (112 days) between double red cell donations. Platelet apheresis donors may give every seven days up to 24 times per year. 

For additional information on the American Red Cross Community Blood Drive at Atlanta Technical College contact La Tanya Thomas 404-225-4574 or [email protected].  For information on the American Red Cross visit Accessredcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS.