According to Marlene Ihle, the blood donor recruiter at UMCPP, the blood drive could not continue because there was a strong odor coming from a drain in the floor in the area of Cannon’s basement where the blood was going to be collected.
Cannon’s community service officer Kathleen Ryan ’14, who organized the blood drive, declined to comment. Cannon president Connor Clegg ’14 did not respond to requests for comment.
The odor was recognized when staff started to set up for the blood drive between 9:30 and 10 a.m. on Friday morning, Ihle said.
“They said it smelled like sewer gas,” Ihle explained. “That odor caused two of my staff to feel nauseous and they had a headache and they thought they were going to vomit. We couldn’t have them working under those conditions.”
Ihle added that the site was fine and odorless when checked a week earlier in preparation for the event.
The odor did not affect student presence at the club Friday evening.
“We don’t want to put anyone at risk,” Ihle said. “We needed to do this mainly because we have to take care of the donors and make sure they’re fine, make sure the staff is fine and everybody needs to have a good experience through it all.”
Since nausea and light-headedness are side effects of giving blood, Ihle said she and other members of the UMCPP staff were concerned that if donors began giving blood and had a bad reaction, they may have a poor experience and feel discouraged from donating blood again in the future.
According to Ihle, 50 people had signed up to donate blood at Cannon and more were expected to donate without an appointment.
Ihle said she plans to meet with Ryan next week to reschedule the event, though they may hold the rescheduled event in a different facility.
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