Charlie Corpuscle visited the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks yesterday as they hosted their biannual community blood drive.

The Elks Lodge, 209 S. Annie Glidden Road, hosted about 30 people who were willing to donate their life giving liquid.

Heartland Blood Center, based in Aurora, collected the blood. It is an independent blood center serving 33 hospitals in a 12-county area.

“This blood drive was smaller than some,” said Kari Behnke, team leader for Heartland. “But every pint of blood matters because we always need it.”

The center recently gave more than 200 units of blood to the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

For some donors giving blood is second nature.

“With this donation I will have given over six gallons,” said Bill Draper, Elks veterans service chairman

Giving blood is something people have to do in advance because when someone needs it, it’s already too late, he said.

“The reason they need the blood is because of an emergency or major surgery,” he said.

Getting more students to donate their blood is a goal of the Elks.

“We have to get people used to giving blood at a younger age,” Draper said. “Most of the Elks are over 50 and if they do not feel comfortable giving blood now then it is pretty hard to convince them to do it at this point and time.”

Blood is not the only thing collected during the drives.

In addition to collecting, processing and distributing the blood units, Heartland Blood Centers provides apheresis (platelet donation), double red cell (red cell apheresis) and designated donations, Elks officer Sue Lazar said.

Double red cell donation allows a donor to give the equivalent of two pints of red blood cells, Behnke said.

After donating, each donor was able to relax with friends and drink apple juice while eating a few of their favorite snacks.