Blue, White, and Red as Allen School Students Open Their Hearts–and Their Veins–to Serve Their Community

Giant blood drive at Borough Hall draws television camerasWhat do you get when over 100 Medical Assistant and Certified Nursing Assistant students participate in a massive blood drive? You get 63 pints of blood! And, as student Medical Assistant Sherman McMullen knowledgeably told the reporter from Brooklyn’s News12 television cable network, on Wednesday, October 3, 2007, “One pint of blood helps five people!” It was called “Blue Wednesday” on campus, a nod to the Allen School’s Medical Assistant students whose royal blue scrubs create a “Sea of Blue” that traditionally draws attention to their annual on-street blood drive, an event that this time included the school’s Certified Nursing Assistants. McMullen was one of the energized and highly motivated Allen School donors who, for six hours, in conjunction with the Staten Island/New York Blood Center, turned the front of Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, at 209 Joralemon Street, into a monumental on-street lifesaving effort.