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New plasma center aims to improve lives By Rachel Newville
Rachel.Newville@coyotes.usd.edu
140
Processed donors The Biotest Plasma Center has seen more than 140 clients since opening Sept. 26
1 of 2 In South Dakota
Vermillion is home to a the second Biotest Plasma Center in the state
$300 Per month
Donors can make up to $300 in one month if they donate twice a week
Eighteen beds sit in a row, machines separating the spots where donors will soon sit. Machines stand next to the beds, awaiting donor blood to separate life-saving plasma and remaining hemoglobin. The beds are part of a complex process at Biotest Plasma Center where people get paid to have their blood taken. The business opened on Sept. 26 and has since processed over 140 new donors. The donors consist of students and community members alike. The center is located in the Vermillion Technology Center, which was a $4.2 million building in the middle of a lawsuit between Vermillion Area Chamber and Development Company and Twin Cities-Based Eagle Creek Software Services last semester. VCDC temporarily moved into the VTC but has since moved back to a downtown location. Jenny Timperley, Biotest Plasma Center manager, said she likes the space and atmosphere the building provides. “We are kind of trying to shy away from a typical plasma center. We don’t want it to be a sterile environment,” she said. “We want it to be something where they can come study, you know, where people can come and not feel hospitality, more of a warm environment.”
The need Plasma is the liquid part of blood that Biotest describes as “straw colored.” Its contents are 90 percent water, 10 percent proteins and clotting factors and has small amounts of salts, glucose and lipids. The reason plasma is so sought after is because it contains antibodies that protect people from diseases. According to Biotest, millions of people of all ages are critically ill and depend on plasma. Timperley said the plasma
“
I think a lot of people sometimes feel like plasma is just (a way) to get money. But I don’t think they really know the true meaning behind it and that it’s really needed badly. Jenny Timperley, Biotest Plasma Center manager
is used to create many kinds of medications. “So what they will do is make pools of that plasma and then they fractionate it. We make all sorts of medications and some of it also is sold to people buying the plasma to make medication, other pharmaceutical companies,” Timperley said. “They make immune globulin for people who have immune deficiencies is the primary use of the plasma.” Donating Plasma, a website devoted to giving information about plasma donation, said some diseases that require plasma treatments are Hemophilia, Von Willebrand Disease and Antithrombin III Deficiency. It can take as many as 1,200 plasma donations to supply enough medication to treat one Hemophilia patient for a year. Timperley said she thinks many donors don’t realize how they are changing recipients’ lives by donating. “We have two young individuals who live in Melbourne and they suffer from immune deficiencies and their stories are on their (Facebook) and it’s really touching. They come and talk to us when we have our manager meetings and the whole room’s crying,” she said. “I think a lot of people sometimes feel like plasma is just to get money but I don’t think they really know
the true meaning behind it and that it is really needed and badly.”
How to donate Timperley said in order to give plasma a donor needs to be 18-years-old, at least 110 pounds, have a valid ID and proof of a permanent address. A first time donor needs to schedule an appointment to donate. The first appoint will take two and a half to three hours. “Basically your first time you come in and we register you in our system. We do checks, there’s some reading material we need you to go over, there’s consent forms you need to sign. We also give you a non-invasive physical,” she said. “Make sure you’re okay to donate and that’s all done on the first time along with your donation.” There are 18 Food and Drug Administration approved machines for plasmapheresis (the process of donating plasma). “But once our tracking shows that we do five donations per machine a day, we’ll up our machines,” she said. “Our goal is to have up to 50 machines in the center.” The donor sits on one of the beds and a Biotest employee hooks them up to a machine that starts drawing the donor’s blood. See PLASMA, Page A6
New gastropub opening downtown next month By Ally Krupinsky
Ally.Krupinsky@coyotes.usd.edu
The co-owners of Café Brulé are expanding their passion for food and downtown Vermillion to a new business, which is set to open next month. Dakota Brick House is located at 15 W Main St., in the building formerly known as Raziel’s. The owners call the business a gastropub, which is defined as a pub that offers meals of high quality. Co-owners Monica Iverson and Jim Waters have been business partners since 2004 when they opened Café Brulé. Iverson said the pair has been thinking about new ideas for food for quite some time, and decided
to take advantage of the vacant building across the street. “We’ve really enjoyed being downtown, and we’re very passionate about food and Vermillion,” she said. “We thought it was a perfect opportunity to be able to expand what we do and also help make the downtown look better. We’re all about Vermillion and USD.” Iverson and Waters are both especially excited for the business’s gas/wood fired oven, which they say will allow them to do dishes that other local restaurants may not be able to offer. The new gastropub will also have a copper tap that holds 20 kinds of beer, which was designed and created by Dakota Brick House general manager Josh Scherrer, a
Ally Krupinsky I The Volante
Dakota Brick House co-owner Jim Waters stands behind the new gastropub’s bar Oct. 11. The
new business will be open sometime in November. USD graduate. Scherrer said though they’ll have a few of the same standard beers as other businesses downtown, their focus will be on craft beers, which
will rotate. “Most places here keep the same beer on tap all year, and we plan to only have five that will stay on our tap line all year,” Scherrer said.
“And the rest of them will rotate. So every time a keg taps out, we put a different keg on.” Iverson said they’re hoping to See BRICK, Page A6
Community tallies profits, incidents after Dakota Days weekend By Clay Conover
Clay.Conover@coyotes.usd.edu
Clay Conover I The Volante
An ambulance parks outside of North Complex while responding
to an emergency in the Warren M. Lee Fine Arts Building Oct. 8.
While students are already counting down the days until Dakota Days 2017, USD and Vermillion are still cleaning up from one of the biggest community events of the year. Dakota Days is known by many as a time to have fun with fellow Coyote fans, while many businesses in Vermillion know it as their busiest time of the year. Gregg Peters, manager of Vermillion Wine and Liquor, said they had a very busy weekend. “I would be comfortable in saying that D-Days Friday is the busiest day of the year,” Peters said. “Usually the Sunday after is the busiest day of the year for the cafe (Mister Smith’s) for breakfast.” Another industry that benefits from D-Days is the hotel business. With all of the alumni and other
Coyote fans coming to town that needed a place to stay, the hotels in town were full. Madison Huber, a front desk worker at the Best Western Vermillion Inn said they made a lot of money over the weekend. “People on D-Days like on Friday and Saturday kept calling and asking for rooms, but we couldn’t give them because they were completely booked,” Huber said. “A lot of people come and use the pool here because we have a sauna and a hot tub. Students will come here and just a lot of people call and ask if they can do that. We do charge $7.50 per person, but it’s something that helps our business during D-Days.” The food industry makes a lot of money on D-Days as well, according to USD student and McDonald’s employee, Rebecca Meyer. “Oh, it was absolutely insane. We had to hire a security guard,”
Meyer said. “We had to call in the cops on Saturday night, mostly just for show, to show that we will do something to get them to calm down, but we did not have to throw them out or anything. We called the cops on a drunk driver. They drove through once, and we were all like, ‘Should we say something?’ But we did not get a license plate, and then they drove through again.” D-Days may be the busiest for law enforcement. The University Police Department, the Vermillion Police Department and the South Dakota Highway Patrol were all on high alert over the weekend. UPD reported that fire alarms were pulled on campus three times, all in North Complex. UPD was also involved with 11 alcohol-related incidents on campus. There was also one weapons violation on campus on Saturday afternoon, according to UPD.