NHS Blood Drive

NHS hosted its annual Blood Drive on October 11, 2013. Ms. Erzinger was the sponsor who ran this year’s blood drive.  There were about 160 students and staff who donated. Students had to sign up with a NHS member, and needed to fill out a permission slip if they were under the age of 17, in order to donate. Many people who signed up were very anxious because they never donated before. Students who signed up were excused from class in order to donate. The procedure started off with getting checked by a volunteer from Heartland to see if the donator was healthy enough to give blood. If they were able to donate, students received pretzels and water before donating blood and they received juice, cookies, chips, and brownies afterwards. This ensured the donator maintained their health after the blood loss. The blood that students donated went to the Heartland Blood Center to help people in need of a blood transfusion or other various situations. Many of them felt fine while others needed to rest afterward. They were told not to exercise and to eat plenty of food in order to replenish blood. Everything ran smoothly as some members from NHS helped students if they did not know where to go. Students were given a pair of sweatpants after they donated as a gift from Heartland. Ms. Erzinger said, “The NHS students did a great job recruiting donors, and we were able to contribute to a great cause.” Everyone who donated was able to save the life of 3 people. This event was a win-win, since the students that helped were able to do something small but made a huge difference in someone’s life.  This demonstrated the school’s character attributes since students donated blood to make a big difference and to show that out of kindness anything is possible.