The Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers registered student organization sponsored a blood drive Wednesday at the YMCA located on S. Wright Street.

The RSO sponsors a blood drive every February, but it has held a blood drive in December before, said Julia Mititelu, organizer of the blood drive and senior in LAS. She added that a primary reason for the timing of this specific blood drive was also because the stock of blood available is lowest during the month of December.

“We found it kind of ironic that the reason people don’t donate during the holiday season is because of the holidays,” she added. “You wouldn’t expect that with Christmas and Hanukkah coming up.”

Sarah Johnson, Red Cross representative, said there are many reasons behind the shortage in the blood supply. Among them is the flu season leaving many possible donors ineligible.

“Often, people that do come in to donate with us aren’t even eligible because they are too sick,” she added. “There are many factors that come to play that end up making this season especially difficult to receive blood donations.”

Johnson said that to combat this difficult season, the Red Cross attempts to book as many blood drives as possible. She said the Red Cross divides the employees into two teams, red and white, to encourage competition and schedule as many blood donations as possible.

The blood drive was relatively successful on Wednesday, said Franklin Kramer, president of Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers and senior in Media. He said compared to what was expected around finals week, the turnout for the drive was especially good, even busy.

Mititelu said on Wednesday that the group had 24 walk-ins, 18 of whom ended up donating.

Kramer said the members of the organization encouraged members of other interfaith groups to participate, volunteer and donate blood.

“We’ve been trying to up the interfaith thing with groups on campus,” he added. “We’ve been trying to push this as an interfaith event with students from all different faiths coming to sign up and volunteer.”

Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers has co-sponsored a blood drive before with RSO Campus Crusade for Christ, which was successful, Kramer said.

Kramer said that he was looking forward to seeing more donors when the group sponsors a drive again in February. And while group members said they were happy with the turnout this month, they are still looking for more support in the near future.

“The more the merrier,” Kramer said.