On March 9, the Red Cross Club held their annual blood drive to support patients in hospitals all throughout the bay area.
This year, the club focused most of their attention on the blood drive rather than their fundraiser which provides money for vaccines against measles. Realizing that they already had two big fundraisers, club officers “anticipated that [this one] wouldn’t go as well.” They obtained 39 units of blood from the blood drive, which will be transported to facilities shortly after, through a total of 36 participants.
Throughout the year, blood banks all over the nation organize events to encourage those who qualify to donate blood. The donated blood will either be given to local hospitals or used to help the military. Blood Centers of the Pacific, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, helps with blood donations all throughout Northern California. They have 14 centers located as north as Mt. Shasta and as south as San Jose.
Blood Centers of the Pacific account representative Wendy Theisen, emphasizes the importance of donating by coordinating blood drives with over eight other high schools in the bay area.
“It’s an exciting opportunity [for the staff] to come to high schools because it is a larger group compared to an office or a church,” Theisen said. “[More people] means more blood in one day, [which] ultimately helps the community.”
Additionally, Theisen states that three days is the shortest amount of time to “supply blood to 44 hospitals.”
According to the vice president of Red Cross, Kaavya Cherukuri (12), the number of participants this year was a little less than that of previous years. Even though many students did not qualify to donate due to the strict requirements for donating blood, the club was still anticipating a higher number of donors. Those who chose to donate must have met the specified age and weight as well as the noted iron levels and customary health standards; they cannot have travelled to a country suffering from malaria either.
Meanwhile, saving lives is Swetha Repakula’s (12) main incentive to donate blood.
“It never hurts to [help patients],” she said. “It’s just something nice for me to do.”
In addition to students, parents, faculty, and non-Harker members also dropped by the gym to donate blood.
Kaavya highly encourages students who meet the requirements next year to donate since donating does not take an enormous amount of effort and it primarily helps the sick patients in need.