The 33rd annual Carolina Blood Drive took place at the Dean Smith Center Tuesday, successfully collecting hundreds of units of blood to give “the gift of life” to those who need it most.

The Carolina Blood Drive has been helping save lives for more than three decades, thanks to endless volunteers, Red Cross and campus staff, and longtime Tar Heels like Ben Aycock.

Aycock has lived in Chapel Hill ever since he came to UNC as a freshman in 1972. He has also been donating blood since the very first Carolina Blood Drive back in 1989. This year was no exception.

“It was absolutely great,” Aycock said. “I came in before the lines hit, I was whisked in, I had a very quick encounter with guy that had to take all the vital signs you need to take before you can give blood and I may have set a personal best bleed rate at only eight minutes.”

Every year he comes with his wife Heidi to donate – rain or shine, during a pandemic as well as in more normal times.

“I am not the activist type, but this is one of the ways I feel like I can contribute to something more than just what I’m doing,” Aycock said.

Last year, the Carolina Blood Drive earned the distinction of being the country’s largest, single-day blood drive during the COVID-19 pandemic, collecting 808 units of blood at the event.

This year, Carolina greeted 541 donors who gave 548 units of blood in total.

“We appreciate our 62 volunteers and 95 first-time donors who helped make this drive a success,” said Rhonda Beatty, director of UNC Visitors Center. “Your generosity will potentially impact 1,644 lives and we are so grateful. ”

For the 2021 blood drive, Carolina aimed to beat last year’s record, shooting for 1000 units of blood in order to ensure a stable blood supply during the pandemic.

The floor of the Dean E. Smith Center is packed with donors, organizers and volunteers during the annual Carolina Blood Drive on Tuesday, June 8. (Dakota Moyer/Chapelboro.com)

“This morning we had a lot of donors who were lined up outside the door right before 7 a.m. and they were excited, they were ready to come in and everybody had a great attitude which is fantastic to see first thing in the morning,” said Jen Deneal, chair of the blood drive’s planning committee.

She said, thanks to the campus community, the Carolina Blood Drive has collected more than 35,000 units of blood and potentially impacted more than 100,000 patients since its start 33 years ago.

All those units have gone to those who require lifesaving blood transfusions – including trauma victims and those who need surgery or cancer treatments.

“I just love the idea of being able to donate and give and save lives and impact people who, really, you’re probably never going to meet, but for whom an eight-minute donation for me could be literally a life-saving thing for someone else,” Deneal said. “I just think that is so powerful and really important.”

For those looking to donate in the future, blood-donor veterans like Aycock have some sage advice for his fellow Tar Heels.

“It’s really an easy thing to do and the only thing I’ll say, ‘don’t do’ is, when they stick the needle in to try and get started, just don’t look,” Aycock said. “So, you sit around for a few minutes and then they feed you and then they march you out with a t-shirt – hard to go wrong.”

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