By Ingrid Wilgen
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The Red Cord Elite program, an effort to reward graduates for blood donation, has been put on hold indefinitely, Carmen Davila, vice president of Community Relations for the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, said Tuesday.
The Student Government Association sponsored the Red Cord Elite program to promote blood donation within the student body.
The program rewards students who donate blood 10 times, volunteer 10 hours or have a combination of the two with a red cord symbolizing their donations at commencement.
The South Texas Blood and Tissue Center sponsors a similar program in high schools, The Red Cord Honor program.
Qualified graduates from this school were to be the first collegians to don the honor.
Justin Wideman, political science sophomore and Student Government Association secretary, said SGA had been working hard for the program to become a reality and was disappointed in the postponement.
The program was originally supposed to start Oct. 18.
Jacob Wong, SGA president and psychology sophomore, said the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center had rescheduled the launch for Jan. 30.
Wideman said Thursday the launch was cancelled Jan. 17.
Davila said that because of limited resources, the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center has had to evaluate all of their programs.
She said they want to make sure resources are shared efficiently throughout the community.
Davila said they want to offer the Red Cord Elite program to colleges but want to make sure they have the resources to handle the demand.
Wong said, “I am very displeased about what happened.”
He said after a year of negotiation and the work of many people to make the Red Cord Elite Program a success, it was a shame that the blood bank backed out.
“We have not been defeated,” Wong said. “We will put our efforts into something else.”
For more information, call SGA at 210-486-0133.