ABC7 Anchor Hosea Sanders and Meteorologist Cheryl Scott were there throughout the day encouraging participation.
Roll up your sleeve, help save a life - that's the message from the American Red Cross. The goal on Wednesday was to get 400 people to participate to collect 300 units of life-saving blood. A total of 634 people turned out, giving more than 430 units of blood.
"I've had a lot of sick family members and I know whatever they can get is really helpful, so I try to give back," said Victoria Villegas, of Belmont-Cragin.
"We're supposed to take care of each other and this is a way that I can try to take care of people," said Rachel Porter, of Andersonville.
One group, called Muslims for Life, says they regularly organize or participate in blood drives as a show of their faith.
"It's our duty as citizens of a country to do everything that we can to help our country, our population, our fellow citizens. So giving blood is just one of many ways that we can do that," said Jasim Naeem, Muslims for Life.
The American Red Cross says Wednesday's event was their largest blood drive on record, but the need for blood continues. They hope those who could not give today will donate virtually.
"We've got a new campaign we call "sleeves up," which is designed to support giving across the year. And I even downloaded today the Red Cross blood donor app, which helps you by your location to determine when the nearby scheduled blood drives are," said Grant Hellwarth, American Red Cross.
"It's really not that bad. It's one stick. It's really pretty easy and after that you get cookies at the end," said Jacob Chappell, River North.
Other media partners in Wednesday's event were Univision and iHeartMedia.