Plasma provides
(profitable pastime
By Sean McCarthy
Assignment Reporter
You may have to do it because of that $ 15 check
you wrote against your account’s $8.
You may want to do it when your pals tell you to
meet them downtown for Monday Night Football,
and you only have $10 to last you until payday ...
next week.
Stick out your arm and make a fist: It’s time to
l \ donate plasma.
j j When it comes to earning quick cash, many stu
| dents choose the option of donating plasma, the liq
| uid portion of blood. Two primary centers - North
| American Biological Medical Center, 300 S. 17th
{ 1 St., and Centeon Bio-Services, Inc., 1442 O St. -
S1 | \ give students the chance to exchange the warm bod
| ily fluid for a more accepted currency - cold, hard
j cash.
bach center has a pre-screening process, mclud
» j | ing a physical and questions about body piercings
! | and “high-risk” partners. Separate tests to deter
\ mine if a person’s veins are fit for donating also are
f ! done at each facility.
] ] Once approved, students can enter the world of
! | plasma donation.
Shawn Hoatson, assistant manager of NAB I
Bio-Medical Center, estimates between 150
and 200 people donate each day.
Approximately 25 to 30 percent of donors
are students, he said. NABI can handle up
to 30 people donating at any one time.
Hoatson said he turns a number of people
away from donating each day.
“High risk is not what a lot of people
think it is,” Hoatson said, “Tattoos or piercing
with non-sterile needles would qualify as high
risk.”
Stick it in
Early in the morning is the busiest time for
donating, Hoatson said. While some donate
sporadically, Hoatson said he has seen others
come in twice a week, every week, for years.
“I’m sure for some of these people, it
can be a primary source of their income,”
he said.
The Food and Drug Administration
ruled that people are allowed to donate
plasma no more than twice a week.
This allows the body sufficient time
to recover from donating, Hoatson said.
Donors at NABI receive $20 for their first visit.
The second time they go in within the week, they
receive $50. The rise in pay is to encourage people to
return, Hoatson said. After this, NABI determines what
a person earns by their weight. A 180-pound person
receives $15 for the first donation of the week and $27
for the second.
Centeon operates on a similar setup. Donors
receive $30 for their first visit, $50 on their second visit
and $25 on their third visit the following week. After
this, donors who weigh more than 150 pounds receive
$20 per donation. Those who weigh less than 150
pounds are paid slightly less.
After the bags of plasma are collected, NABI stores
them in a freezer for various viral tests. The plasma is
then sent to medical facilities across the nation.
Customers of NABI include aspirin-maker Bayer and
Korea Green Cross, which uses plasma for tetanus
immunization. Centeon sends its plasma to pharma
ceutical processing plants.
Hurts so good
Krstie Webber, a Centeon donor, said she usually
donates twice a week. A usual donation session lasts
about 45 minutes for her, she said. Though the needle
doesn’t bother her, the final part of the donating
process can sometimes be irritating, she said.
“When they’re all done and they put the saline solu
tion in, it puts a nasty taste in your mouth,” she said.
Another irritation for Webber is the selection of
movies playing while she’s donating - supposedly to
ease some of the pain of donation.
“They play a lot of Disney movies, which is really
stupid,” she said.
i^u an unucciaicu aupiiuiiiurc ai 111c
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said he donated about
two or three times a month at Centeon. Most of the cash
he receives goes to food, bills and an occasional brew,
he said. McElhinny said he didn’t mind the environ
ment, and thought the selection of movies was good at
Centeon.
“I saw ‘The Crow' here a while ago, and that’s the
best movie I’ve seen here so far,” McElhinny said.
Along with movies, NAB I and Centeon have mag
azines to read, and beds that enable a student to study
while donating' making the experience more comfort
able.
“Donors can converse with the employees, and we
can inform them on all that’s going on. That way it’s not
going to be quite as difficult for the donor,” Hoatson
said.
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
Indie veterans deliver
energetic, quirky show
By Jason Hardy
Music Critic
After more than three years of waiting,
Nebraska finally saw the return of indie-rock
veteran Pavement. The melodic rockers took
to the Ranch Bowl’s stage at about 10:30
p.m. Saturday and played until about mid
night. In its 1 ‘A-hour performance, Pavement
defined what a live performance should be.
After dedicating the night to furniture
mogul Mrs. B, lead singer and guitarist Steve
Malkmus started the show with “Shady
Lane,” a mellow, sing-songy tune off the
band’s newest release, “Brighten the
Corners.” The quintet proceeded to play
songs from each of its five albums. Every
tune was tight and clean, but altered enough
to give the audience more than just a replay
of the recorded tracks.
By the end of the night Pavement had
played at least two songs from every album,
including “Grave Architecture,” from the
album “Wowee Zowee,” and “Silence Kit”
from “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.”
Malkmus and guitarist Spiral Stairs
spiced up the songs with elongated guitar
solos, and percussionist Bob Nastanovich
added a wacky flare by screaming back-up
vocals and inserting quirky noises and
rhythms throughout the show. Steve West’s
drumming and the bass of Mark Ibold com
bined for an intricate rhythm that kept each
song moving. The overall tone of the show
was more loud and intense than that of the
group’s albums, and Malkmus changed
lyrics of “Range Life” to suit the sold-out
Omaha crowd by poking fun at fraternity
favorites, 311.
The crowd sang along with Pavement’s
most radio-friendly songs, “Cut Your Hair”
and “Stereo,” and danced to the groovy
“Blue Hawaiian.”
Ibold said Omaha’s performance was the
fifth show on Pavement’s tour, which started
a week ago in San Francisco. He said the
band was stopping at some of the places it
had skipped on previous tours because of
time constraints.
u —
I’m happy in any
situation. If there’s a
good stage sound,
we perforin well.”
Mark Ibold
Pavement bassist
“We’re playing in some cities that we
haven’t had the chance to play in a while,”
Ibold said.
Although the group has been touring off
and on since 1991, Ibold said he loved play
ing at different places, and that the band still
felt nervous and excited before every show.
He said the group had been playing in small
er venues, but that size and location didn’t
matter very much either.
“I’m happy in any situation,” Ibold said.
“If there’s a good stage sound, we perform
well.”
Matt Miller/DN
PAVEMENT BASSIST Mark (bold plays to a sold-out crowd
at Omaha’s Ranch Bowl Saturday night.
