Second semester blood drive comes close to breaking previous school record

March 17, 2017

_MG_7045 — **Brandon Kaufman (Sr.)**, one of the student organizers of the event, donates blood. (F. Duffy)

By DILRUBA ASICI
Staff Writer
127 units of blood were donated by students to Red Cross in the second Blood Drive of the year. This semester’s Blood Drive came close to breaking the 2008 school record of 128 units donated.
Overall, 206 students pre-registered to donate blood in the Blood Drive. However, only 161 checked in on the day of, and of those 161, only 127 were able to meet the standards of donating blood.
“I really believe in giving back and I will take advantage of any opportunity I get. I think one amazing way is to donate blood and that’s why I donated,” Kiana Ghamari (Sr.) said. “Not only is donating blood important, but I saved three lives as well, and in the end, helping others is the most rewarding experience.”
Each pint one donates can be broken up into three components: red blood cells, plasma and platelets. These blood products have the potential of saving up to three lives.
“I think the Blood Drive is a great opportunity for students to contribute,” May Lynn Le (So.) “It’s really [a] convenient way to contribute because [ Red Cross] comes to us.”
This number exceeded last semester’s amount of 110 units of donated blood since more people met the age requirement and there was more student publicity.
“We had a performance that was incredible,” Neah Lekan (Jr.) said. “I think we did a great job in terms of getting people in even though we didn’t hit the record, I mean you know one less.Still, this is the best performance understandably since 2008. In the past nine years we’ve had a lot of effort to increase the Blood Drive and we hit a great performance here.”
Just like last semester, this Blood Drive was organized by the ASB Service Project Commissioners Neah Lekan and Brandon Kaufman. They were in charge of giving donors appointment times for the Blood Drive, creating an overall schedule of the donation times and checking in donors. In addition, the Blood Drive received support from the UHS Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA).
“I think the school is on a precipice of an ability to break that record,” Lekan said. “Next year I think there’s a lot of willing donors. We helped to create a culture that was more willing to donate than in the past. I think that’s awesome and next year the next project Service Commissioners really have something to build off here.”

Donate to Sword & Shield

$180

$1000

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of University High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.