Photo by Greg Gawlowski
Actually all the company wants is the plasma, so donors will soon be reinjected with their own red blood
cells.
Blood bank pumps city
By JACK DESMOND
Of the Emerald
When Eugene sees a need, Eugene fills it.
Eugeneans are flocking to a new enterprise that,
along with Odyssey Records, may well rejuvenate
the downtown mall.
The Eugene Plasma Corporation (EPC), lo
cated at 1071 Olive St., will draw your very own
precious blood out, spin it around in a refrigerated
centrifuge to separate the plasma from the red blood
cells, re-inject your red blood cells with a saline solu
tion, and send you off with a smile and $10 in cash
plus a possible $5 extra if you happened to have
clipped out the bonus coupon that was advertised in
the Register-Guard.
Business has been booming at the Center since
it opened its doors June 12 as the facility is proces
sing more than 100 people a day, says Director Allen
Wickizer. Already the plasma center is booked solid
through July 7 as customers flock to cash in on their
bodies.
The facility is already the second busiest in the
U.S., bowing only to Orlando, Florida. Wickizer attri
butes this phenomenon to Eugene’s “uniqueness”
— that is, it contains a large number of college stu
dents and transients always in need of spare cash.
But a person doesn’t have to be happy with
making a once-only $15. EPC offers career oppor
tunities for anyone who likes to earn money flat on his
back while having his blood drained out of his body.
Since the red blood cells are returned to the body, a
person is allowed to donate plasma twice a week
indefinitely unlike whole blood which can be only
donated once every two months.
For those hardy enough, a seventh donation
within a one month period gamers a $7 bonus in
addition to the regular $10 while an eighth,earns an
extra $8. So, an enterprising capitalist can potentially
earn $100 in the first month.
However, an energetic person who’s managed
to survive eight bloodlettings need not stop even
there and can earn even more by recruiting others.
For each body that he manages to lure to the center,
he receives $5 more as a referral bonus.
But the really big bucks can be made if you
happen to have blood that contains anti-E or anti-D
components. Wickizer wouldn’t reveal how much
those donors could earn, but he remarked "consid
erably more” with the emphasis on “considerably.”
If EPC is willing to pay that much money for
plasma, one wonders how much the company sells it
for.
“That’s a top secret," responded Wickizer with a
smile.
Fortunately, Scott Wright, director of Lane
Memorial Blood Bank (LMBB), doesn’t have to show
a profit for his blood bank and revealed that LMBB
sells a.ljter of plasma for $47. He said it,was safe to
assume that EPC was selling its plasma for even
more.
Nor did the two directors feel that they would be
competing for the same clientele. Wickizer will be
aiming his sales pitch towards college students. He
plans to put up posters around the campus with
tear-off coupons offering $5 bonuses, and has al
ready taken an ad out in the Student Directory.
“I think there is a possibility initially,” said Wright
about the competition. But he felt that in the long run,
there wouldn't be much. Wickizer claimed that stu
dents are not a dependable source of donors for
blood bank programs and that he would be taking
people who normally don’t donate blood simply for
credit.
However, in the fall Wickizer does face the pos
sibility of heated competition for bodies to extract
plasma frortv Hyland Laboratories of Costa Mesa,
California, is considering leasing the defunct
Ellingsworth’s clothing store adjacent to Odyssey
Records on the mall.
Wickizer feels that Eugene isn't big enough to
support two plasma centers though his business has
so far been phenomenal. Currently, EPC’s parent
corporation, North American Biologicals, Inc., is
negotiating with Hyland Laboratories about the pos
sibility of EPC supplying plasma to Hyland iO prevent
the laboratory from moving to Eugene and saturating
the fertile fields of the plasma business.
In the meantime, Wickizer must deal with the
backlog of people at the facility. Because the center
recently just opened, it is still processing large num
bers of people who want to become donors on a
regular basis. Regular donors are required to pass a
physical, various other chemical tests, and are tested
every few months to check if their protein level is still
normal.
These tests all require extra time say his four busy
counter attendants. While one is checking the blood
pressure of a possible donor, two more are going
down a list of questions asking people if they’ve ever
had certain diseases, and the fourth is handing out
money and taking Polaroid snapshots of people ac
cepted as regular donors.
At present, the center can process a donor through
the cycle in three hours. Wickizer is hoping to lower
the time span to one hour and 15 minutes once the
regular donors have all been certified. He may also
open for business on Saturdays and lengthen the
number of hours that the facility stays open.
For Howard Clark, his first crack at this fabled gold
mine fell through. Reduced to living in a van and
supporting himself on food stamps, the plasma
center offered a needed shot in the arm to his budget.
However, when he went down to the facility last
Thursday, because he was only able to show one
piece of ID, the center refused him because it re
quires two pieces of identification. Now, Clark is
scheming to get another piece of ID and may even
hitchhike down to LA to pick up his birth certificate.
He isn’t about to pass up the career of a lifetime.
Museum of Art
finds new friends
to build collection
Jeanne Johnson is the newly installed Chairer of the Friends of the
Museum at the University. Diana Berry is Vice-Chairer; Deanna Koenig,
Secretary; and Walter Paulin, Treasurer.
The Friends of the Museum is a non-profit support organization for
the University’s Museum of Art. Through its fund raising efforts it has
been very helpful in expanding the Museum’s permanent collection as
well as aiding in bringing important exhibitions to its galleries.
The Friends of the Museum sponsors many programs in art ap
preciation and education. One of these is the Visual Arts Resources,
begun by the Friends, which is a vital outreach program bringing the
resources of the Museum to outlying areas of the state and to the
country. Another is the Docent Council of the “Friends" which provides
trained volunteer tour-guides for the Museum’s permanent and chang
ing exhibitions.
Two soon-to-be-available projects of the Friends are the Public
Arts Brochure, a walking guide to public art in the Eugene area, and a
cookbook published by the Gourmet Group of the Friends. Not only will
it contain superb recipes from outstanding cooks in the area, but it will
also contain original fine artwork of local artists and photographers.
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