The biannual blood drive is where dozens of students and staff donate their blood for those who need it. The blood is then sent to the Red Cross, a nonprofit organization that provides emergency assistance and disaster support.

At the blood drive hosted by student council, about 60 students and staff signed up and there were 35 successful donations.  

“That’s a little bit lower than normal. We had a lot of girls especially, that didn’t meet the height-weight ratio. So, you can weigh a certain amount, but you also have to be a certain height too. And we also had people that had low iron. And we had a lot of people that backed out because they just didn’t feel well,” said student council sponsor Andrea Holmes.

Administrative assistant Kelly Lewis said she received a blood transfusion in August of 2017 because her iron blood level oxygenation had dropped so low that she was passing out, and her heart was racing all of the time.

“When I had to go to the hospital, and they found out that’s what was wrong,” said Lewis. “So they gave me a blood transfusion.”

She went to the emergency room to get her blood tested to get a matching donor.

“They also have to test your heart and some other different things. I’m sure it’s different for everybody depending on what their circumstances are and why they’re getting the blood transfusion.” said Lewis.

The operation took several hours, and Lewis was kept in the hospital overnight.

“It was a little scary to have it done,” said Lewis. “There is a small risk that you could be infected with something in the blood that they may not have been able to screen out and catch. And then it’s just a little weird that somebody else’s blood is in you.”

Lewis said her health improved greatly after just a day.

“The cool thing about it is that I felt a ton better once I had it done,” said Lewis.  “It’s so necessary for people to give blood.”

The next blood drive is scheduled for Wednesday, March 27^th.