Pale-faced GW students milled about the third floor of the Marvin Center Thursday, waiting to donate their blood at a blood drive.

The drive was co-sponsored by the American Islamic Medical Association and the AmeriCorps Neighbors Project. Senior Maliha Malik, a member of AIMA and AmeriCorps, said she began planning the drive during the summer and reserved the date for the event in July.

Originally, the recruiting goal for the project was 40 donors, but the goal was increased to 50 donors in response to the devastation Hurricane Floyd caused, Malik said.

Malik said that students’ response to donor requests was impressive. On the first day of asking for donations, Malik said she had 50 donors.

“It was amazing how well the GW community responded to our request,” she said.

Thousands of residents of North Carolina are living in Red Cross shelters after rainfall left many houses flooded. The hurricane caused 47 deaths and more than $6 billion in damage, according to the Red Cross Web site.

The Red Cross is helping many hurricane victims with much-needed resources, like blood from drives like the one at GW, Malik said.

Malik said AmeriCorps and AIMA are planning to organize another event in conjunction with the Red Cross next semester.