Despite falling just short of its goal of 288 units of blood, Student Services Specialist Breanna von Stein said that the March Red Cross blood drive was a major success.

While the drive only collected 237 units of blood, von Stein attributed the slightly lower than expected result to simply lacking the time and space to handle the rush of willing donors.

“We just didn’t have enough spots open,” von Stein said, adding, “We were pretty busy all the way through”.

Von Stein said the problem was that the number of staff members available is determined by how many donors sign up for the event in advance.

However, the overwhelming majority of donors who participated were walk-ins without an appointment.

Inter-Club Council Secretary Ricky Gonzalez, who was the student responsible for coordinating the blood drive, said that it was difficult to determine exactly how many donors participated because of the rush.

“We don’t have exact numbers yet, but we had to have had easily more than 130 students and faculty participate,” Gonzalez said, adding that it was a “complete success.”

However, previous EC blood drives have been more successful.

EC’s October 2011 blood drive, for example, collected 259 units of blood, while last March’s blood drive collected 425 units of blood.

Still, von Stein applauded the contribution by students and pointed out that as many as 711 lives could be saved with the amount of blood donated.

“I think what was most significant about the drive was how unusually smoothly it went, even with the amount of people who showed up,” von Stein said.

Von Stein also added that the blood drive was a team effort.

“I think we have the student volunteers to thank for that, they really made a difference,” von Stein added.