El Camino students can donate blood to the Cedars-Sinai medical center this week as the hospital partners with the nursing program, Iota Kappa Chi and the Inter Club Council on campus.

The blood drive started on Tuesday, March 8 and is going until Thursday, March 10 in the Student Activities Center East Lounge.

Blood drive coordinator, Cheryl Berlow said that she organized the event through the ICC and the nursing program.

“I bring the posters and the fliers and they make the announcements. Then we bring the stuff in and we set it up,” Berlow said.

The blood will be used in the Cedars-Sinai hospital for their patients. The hospital is known for being used by plenty of famous people.

“Britney Spears was taken there, (also) that was where Lamar Odom was recently,” Berlow said. “That’s where all the famous people go, but also we treat poor people.”

Berlow said that they usually get about 350 to 400 pints of blood in a drive. With each student donating one pint. However, Berlow said that the hospital uses 40,000 pints a year.

“We do a lot of transplants like liver, heart and lung transplants, but a liver and heart transplant can use 50 to 100 pints of blood,” Berlow said.

Many people work together to reach their goal which is to collect 350 to 400 pints of blood.

Registered nurse, Cecilia Young, from the Cedars-Sinai medical center is part of the staff and is the charge nurse.

Students must meet the Food and Drug Administration requirements in order to be a donor.

“You have to be 17 years old and 110 pounds, those are the minimum requirements,” Young said. “You have to be healthy, (students) with no fever, infections, or injuries.”

Students with tattoos can donate as long as they get their tattoos in the state of California.

However, gay males cannot be donors because “they are at a high risk of getting the AIDS disease,” Young said.

ICC member Nicholas Castro said that their main goal is to get as many students as possible and they hope to be one of the top schools (In donations).

Lionardo Maya, 21, fire tech/paramedic, was the first student to donate blood. He said this was his first time donating blood.

“It was alright. I’ve had needles in me before, so it wasn’t that bad,” Maya said. “I did (donate) because my mom did it and she has donated a couple of times.”

Students still have time to donate, as the drive will continue today from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and again on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.