Blood drives packed

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DeKALB -- With medical personnel putting in long shifts on the East Coast, blood drives across the country have become necessary gatherings for those wanting to help the cause. Three blood drives at Northern Illinois University yesterday had students flocking to chairs for a chance to help those in need. By pure coincidence, Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity on campus, had already planned a blood drive for Wednesday. "We've had this planned for five months," Amanda Krismer, service vice president for the fraternity, said. "Our original goal was for 50 (donors) and now it looks like we're going to get 100." Krismer started scheduling appointments for the blood drive, which was organized by Heartland Blood Centers of Aurora. Once tragedy struck on Tuesday morning, Krismer's phone started to ring. At that point, she decided to stop using a scheduling system and accept only walk-ins. "We've been turning people away since 1 p.m.," Krismer said about the blood drive, which started at noon. "We've had people waiting here since 10 a.m." The blood drive organized by Krismer's organization was in the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center. Two other blood drives were held on campus yesterday at University Plaza and Grant Towers South. "The line just to sign up was all the way around the building," Krismer said. Jeremy McBrayer, a NIU graduate student, didn't even know about the blood drive. Once he had found out more information about the need for blood and the drive itself, he signed up to be a donor. "If I would have seen this wait on a normal day, I wouldn't have stopped," McBrayer said. He knew this was not a normal day by any means. "I almost feel like this is a duty," McBrayer said. "The people in the tragedy I'm not related to, but at the same time it could be the person next door." McBrayer signed up for the Holmes Student Center blood drive at around 11:45 a.m. At that time, he was told there would be a wait. Three and a half hours later he was still sitting in the waiting room anticipating his turn to donate. The waiting room itself was more than just a holding area for donors. A television in the corner of the room kept everyone apprised of any breaking news about Tuesday's attack. McBrayer, along with fellow student Brennan Mrugala, was joined in the opposite corner by one of the counselors deployed to discuss the terrorism on the East Coast with the donors at the blood drive. "This time I knew there is more of an urgency (to give blood) instead of knowing that somebody needs blood, but not immediately," Mrugala said. When McBrayer, Mrugala and the other donors left the Holmes Student Center, they could have been approached by more service fraternity members who were collecting money for the American Red Cross Disaster Fund. "A lot of people lost their loved ones and need financial support to get their lives back together," Bob Denna, fraternity member, said. "We are just trying to help as many people as we can." Denna also said his organization did not have a set goal of what it wants to raise for the Disaster Fund. Members will be collecting in the MLK Commons area today and Friday as well.