NPHS blood drive helps save lives
4.5 million American patients are in need of blood transfusions every year. In recent years, due to COVID-19 and other health concerns in regards to donating blood, America has been hit with a national blood shortage. On Wed. Nov. 16, NPHS hosted a blood drive which brought in 35 pints of blood, enough for 73 patients worldwide.
The drive was set up on the basketball courts, with the blood being drawn in trucks from Vitalint, a nonprofit organization that provides blood and hosts blood drives across the nation. With 61 people signing up to donate blood the blood drive got donations from around half of the signees. Sophia Di Stefano, senior, and student coordinator for the blood drive, reflects on the importance of hosting blood drives. “Mobile blood donation clinics are to go to places to be able to reach out to as many people within the community as possible to get as much blood as possible because there’s constantly a need for blood, ” Di Stefano said.
Donating blood is a very rewarding process for many and is an extremely valuable action for the health of millions of patients every year. Ella Holzberger, senior, donated blood as a way to help others in need. “[Donating blood] is something that I have always wanted to do. My family donated blood frequently, so I always wanted to be a part of that. I also love giving back to the community, so giving such a precious and needed gift was something I intended on doing at some point in my life,” Holzberger said. In order to prevent health risks, especially due to the fact that the donors were all minors, the requirements for donating were very strict, including weight and height requirements in order to donate to prevent health risks.
The blood drive process would have been impossible without the help of the student volunteers who assisted with the paperwork and passing out snacks and shirts to the donors. Elizabeth Arjaev, senior, describes her role as a volunteer. “I helped cross off the names of people that were donating and organized their permission slips. I also helped hand out the T-shirts for when the donors were finished, ” Arjaev said.
Donating blood is a very important process for the well-being of millions of people in America alone. Only 37% of people can donate blood, and as such, those who can, have the power to save lives. “Blood drives people together. It’s really important, like everyone has the power to save a life. And that’s a really important superpower that I think everyone kind of needs to realize because you have that power and it’s amazing if you can, ” Di Stefano said.
