Blood drive exceeds goal
Fall blood drive surpasses their goal of 150 donors.
Junior Christine Cave donating blood.
November 1, 2019
On Thursday, Oct. 1, one- hundred seventy-nine donors show up to donate in the seasonal blood drive at the big gym throughout the day.
“There’s a lot of people that already came in that didn’t sign up on the survey, which is really good because our goal this year is to reach at least 150 donors,” said Jia Zheng, a RAMS Dedicated member and volunteer help in the blood drive.
A donor gets to choose what procedure they want to undergo. They can choose if they want the whole blood donation or the Automated Red Cell Donation (Alyx). Malcolm Sanoria, a junior chose to do Alyx, which took a longer time.
“There’s an Alyx version, which basically focuses on the red blood cells,” said Sanoria.
According to the non-profit organization of this event, Vitalant, one pint can help three people. Blood Donation is not just beneficial for the recipients, but also for the donor.
“It also has health benefits like it lowers cholesterol. It helps lower blood pressure and it has a lot of benefits with donating blood while you’re helping out someone else,” said Zheng.
However, not everyone will be eligible to donate. Some reasons being, they are not of age; donors have to be at least 16. They are under the weight requirement, at least 110 lb, or they might have recently traveled to an area where they could have been exposed to blood borne diseases.
The blood drive is a regular school activity. It happens twice in a school year. Consistent donor, Sydney Bui, feels rewarded after participating in the fall blood drive.
“I think it was the fact that I know that I’m helping other people. I could potentially save somebody’s life by giving them my blood,” said Bui.
