SUMMERDALE, Ala. - Every two seconds someone in the United Sates needs blood.

One donation of one pint can save the lives of up to three people.

More than 38,000 blood donations are needed everyday.

These statistics and many more are what encouraged 15 donors, four of them first-timers, to give a pint to save a life at Alabama Gulf Coast Christian Academy’s Blood Drive on Thursday afternoon.

This is the second year for the drive and was held from 12-5 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the school.

The goal was 21 pints, said Kristi Mixon, charge nurse from the Mobile chapter of the American Red Cross Blood Services division, who was overseeing the drive, but depending on where the drive is held and what the circumstances are determined the number of donors.

“We are always looking for O and AB types because they are the most common and most needed and there is a shortage of them. It’s funny how we will have a certain blood type to show up at drives and they will be the most dominant. You would think there would be various types to donate but it hardly ever is that way,” Mixon said.

A person has to be 16 years old to donate with a parents consent and 17 without consent, Mixon said. “it’s interesting how many high school students are beginning to donate now than before. I’m glad to see it.”

Most of the donors Mixon sees have been doing it all their adult lives and some donors are in their 80’s and 90’s and still healthy enough to give. “It’s amazing to see how some of these older people are still so active and able to do so many different things.”

Each donor that gave received a t-shirt or a free round of golf from a Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and was automatically entered into a regional drawing for two Delta round trip airline tickets, school officials said.

And students who recruited a donor who gave will receive a thank you gift, a certificate of appreciation and a pizza party.

According to the American Red Cross web site, there ae eight blood types (O positive and negative, A positive and negative, B positive and negative, AB positive and negative) and “O” is the one most often requested by hospitals, and a single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.

Some other Red Cross facts include:

Five million patients in the United States receive blood in a year.

Less than 38 percent of the U.S. population are eligible to give blood.

9.5 million blood donors in the U.S. each year.

Average adult has about 10 pints of blood in his body.

A donor can give every 56 days.

Only seven percent of people in the U.S. have O-negative, most common blood type.

Only three percent have AB-poisitive, universal plasma type.

The American Red Cross blood program began in 1940 and it supplies approximately 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply. It also gets 80 percent of its donations from mobile blood drives, which number about 200,000 each year, according to the web site.

“Overall, the drive was successful and we are very pleased with the turnout. The people of the community really came out and supported us like usual,” school officials said.