Simpson College has historically been the Blood Center of Iowa’s top college for donors and units of blood received. This year it really showed: Out of 171 people who signed up to donate blood on Nov. 9, 140 people gave blood, resulting in 151 pints of blood taken in.

This is a significant start this year for the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.

“I’m extremely happy,” senior Mara LeHew said. “Our highest units of blood given before [was] 94 total units.”

LeHew, the service director and coordinator of the APO blood drive, said some of the 151 pints received were from the double-red-cell donation process in which a person can give two pints instead of one.

LeHew said the record-breaking success of the blood drive was due to online registration and a lot of donors who gave blood for the first time.

“[At] our blood drive, we always see a lot of first-time donors, which is a good thing,” LeHew said.

Freshman Annette Scholten gave blood for the first time and said it went just fine.

“I just figured it was a worthy cause and since I was able to do it, I figured I should do what I can,” Scholten said.

LeHew said there has been a high demand for blood recently, so giving blood does matter.

“Giving one pint of blood can save three people,” LeHew said. “It’s really good to give because eight of 10 people will need blood at some point in their life.”

LeHew said it’s fairly easy for APO to organize a blood drive at Simpson. The group just needs people to work at the canteen.

“All we do is make sure the facility (Hopper Gym) is available and we have staff to work it,” LeHew said. “It doesn’t seem as if we do a whole lot.”

LeHew said APO is looking into expanding or changing the times for future blood drives at Simpson, scheduled for Feb. 3 and Apr. 4.

“We are talking about making it a little later,” LeHew said after her sixth drive.

Changing the time or not may not matter to some, like sophomore Elizabeth Caballero who sees every blood drive as a positive event.

“I think it’s easy to help someone by giving blood and it doesn’t hurt,” Caballero said. “You don’t have anything to lose.”