Football team holds St. Patrick’s Day blood drive

By Bontã Hill
The Guardsman

On a day when the color green was on everyone’s mind, the City College football team was busy giving love to the color red.

Rams head coach George Rush, along with four assistants, brought more than 40 players to each give a pint of blood at the Blood Center of the Pacific Irwin Center, located at 270 Masonic Ave. in San Francisco, for a special St. Patrick’s Day donation.

Rush was initially looking for the team to donate to the U.S. military, but he found that military personnel handle donations internally. He then contacted the Blood Center, which was waiting with open arms to receive more than 40 donations.

“I’m a firm believer that playing intercollegiate athletics is a real privilege,” Rush said. “With some of the advantages our student athletes have, the least they can do is give something back to the community.”

Don Burghardt, who is the director of donor recruitment at the Blood Center and has been affiliated with blood banks since the mid-80s, was excited and thankful by the turnout. He admitted he was surprised by the number of donors Rush was able to bring from his team.

“This is one fantastic and outstanding production on everybody’s part,” he said. “We get contacted by people all the time saying that they’re going to get 100 people to give blood. When push comes to shove, they may get 12 to 13 people to come. We get our expectations up and we get a little jaded.”

There are a total of 12 blood banks in the Bay Area, and Burghardt said his center gets an average of 30 donors per day. Their goal is to get more than 400 donors per day from all of their blood banks combined, in an effort to meet the high demand of hospitals that receive donated blood.

Field Recruitment Supervisor Christina Mihalos said she hasn’t seen a turnout like this from any athletic team in the city. Once the football team got to the Blood Bank, her primary concern became whether or not she would have enough food to feed the team.

As players waited to give their blood, they were treated to a spread of spaghetti and lasagna. After that was consumed, the blood bank ordered several pizzas for the players who missed out on the pasta.

Once the day came to an end, and over 40 pints of blood were donated, Rush said he would love for his team to continue this community service.

“It makes a significant difference in the community and I’m proud of my players for signing up and volunteering to do this,” he said.