A record number of students, faculty and parents lined up in the Chalmers student lounge to donate blood last Friday. A lot of people volunteered to donate; 106 people successfully donated, 54 of whom were students.

The blood drive was the second this year. Unlike the Nov. 5 drive, which was run by UCLA, last Friday’s blood drive was run through the Red Cross. The Red Cross’ different requirements allowed for more students to have the opportunity to donate. Blood could be donated by students as young as 16 as long as they had parental permission, whereas UCLA required students to be 17 or older.

Semi annual blood drives on campus have been organized for the past several years. They are organized by the student Blood Drive Committee and Executive Assistant to the President Ann-Marie Whitman.

“I think [the blood drives are] there as a reminder that Harvard-Westlake is there for the community,” Blood Drive Committee co-chair Austin Lewis ’11 said. “The Red Cross constantly has a need for blood — the fact that we could help shows that Harvard-Westlake isn’t just there for the Harvard-Westlake community but also for the greater Los Angeles community.”

“We were hoping for [at least] 100 donations,” Lewis said. “To save up to 300 lives would be a great goal to work towards.”

“It was the most successful blood drive we’ve ever had,” Blood Drive Committee co-chair Justin Cohen ’11 said.

“I had donated at the UCLA blood drive [earlier in the year] and I just thought it would be a nice thing to do,” she said. “I decided to donate because my dad does it all the time because he’s O-negative, the universal donor.”

“It was definitely more successful because the Red Cross allows students to donate if they’re 16 with parental permission whereas with [the UCLA blood drive], you have to be 17,” Cohen said.

For last Friday’s blood drive, the administration did not allow any in season athletes to donate blood due to parents’ concerns.