The Key Club ran their annual blood drive on Wednesday, March 1. The blood drives that are hosted at BHS are run through the Community Blood Center. The club was able to collect 32 pints also known as units and had a total of 48 student donors. With all of the donations from students, staff and community members there was enough blood collected to potentially save 96 lives.
“We had 56 open time slots and we filled all the slots. The times were from 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and the time slots every 10 minutes. We even had a few cancellations the day of and were able to fill them with walk-ins,” Key Club advisor Suzanne Wood said.
Some people were influenced by their friends to donate, but for junior Allie Thull she was influenced by a different source.
“The Community Blood Center actually called me in December and asked if I was willing to do it because I’m O positive so many people can take my blood and I said yes!” Thull said.
The school has an efficient system in place to get students in and out so they don’t miss much of their classes. Second time donor junior Josie Farmer scheduled her appointment to ensure her classes would remain unmissed.
“My experience was good with how the school has set up with the blood donation people makes it easy to go donate during the school day. I had my blood drawn at 10:30 and I chose this time because it was during a class that I’m doing well in so it didn’t create a conflict at all,” Farmer said.
With a fast and effective system in place the donation process is completed quickly and students are able to return to their day with a few free snacks and possible light side effects.
“After everything was done I felt exhausted and tired, but overall I was very satisfied with the experience,” Thull said.
For Farmer as a returning donor she knew the process but this time her experience was a little different.
“After my donation I felt just fine up until I passed out and then I felt better after that,” Farmer said.
Despite the minor side effects both girls deemed their donations a success because they were able to help others.
“We are hoping to add a total of three blood drives at BHS next year. This will give students the potential to become a Gallon Grad which will give the opportunity for them to earn cords to wear at graduation. Any student who is interested in knowing more about the Gallon Grad program can check it out,” Wood said.