American River College held their annual blood source drive for students, faculty, and staff on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29.

The Blood Source donation drive is sponsored by the nursing department and health center.

Many ARC students showed up to donate blood in order to save lives and make a difference in the community.

“Every life is worth saving,” said Danika Gartman, a nursing major.

“My family is the reason why I started giving blood because my dad and my uncle give blood every 32 days,” said nursing major Vanessa Esparza.

“They told me that I should donate as well because our blood, we are o+ and they like (Blood Source rep) call them for their blood and I was just like okay so I checked out the summer blood source drive.” Esparza said.

Esparza said she was happy to be a part of this years blood drive and is dedicated to continue donating.

“I actually got a call from blood source saying they were going to be at my school so I was all excited and here I am,” said Esparza. “So I figured if you could save a few lives by donating, why not it doesn’t hurt to donate.”

“I’m just really happy to be donating because it is for an amazing cause,” she added.

“Blood source is a really great organization and I am glad that I can help” said Savannah  Olivier, a Psychology major. “I think it is cool they give us T-shirts too”, she said.

The organizers of the blood drive were giving out free T-shirts to anyone who gave blood.

ARC has frequently held blood drives on campus over a number of years, including one each of the last three semesters.