Samo Blood Drive canceled by UCLA nurses' strike

Camille De BeusStaff WriterThe annual Associative Student Body (ASB) Blood Drive on May 21 was an unintended casualty of a dispute among University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), nurses who help with the event.According to UCLA coordinator Cathleen Davidson, the nurses went on strike due to a union dispute.The blood drive will not be rescheduled during this school year, according to ASB Blood Drive organizer Bronte Burnette ('13). Sydney Krasny (’15) recently turned 16, making her eligible to donate blood. Krasny said she had been looking forward to donating at the Blood Drive.“I was really looking forward to donating blood, because people who have donated blood prolonged my grandfather's life while he fought cancer,” Krasny said. “I really was looking forward to my first real chance to be able to do that for someone else.”ASB member Kelly Moreau ('15) said students were not the only ones disappointed by the canceled blood drive."It left us feeling frustrated as well as annoyed that we were getting the blame for the cancellation of this event because it wasn't our fault," Moreau said.Students may not be able to donate blood through ASB at Samo, but there are still plenty of other opportunities to give blood.“I would suggest to students who really want to donate [blood] to go the UCLA Ackerman Hall and donate blood [at] their center there,” Burnette said. "There are [also] many other organizations, like Red Cross, that have blood drives throughout the community, at churches and even at Santa Monica Place.”cdebeus@thesamohi.com