The National Honor Society (NHS) hosted this year’s fall blood drive on Oct. 11, 2024, in the wrestling room. NHS hosts a blood drive once each semester, during which students and faculty members can donate a pint of their blood to people in the community and surrounding areas. Just one pint of blood can save up to three lives.
This semester, 58 students and faculty participated in the blood drive, donating around 70 pints total. NHS hosts events such as blood drives as part of their mission to champion academic excellence and community service. Club leaders at NHS take a large role in the event’s organization, from planning to advertising the drive.
“For the blood drive we did a whole bunch of advertising, from slides at our general meetings, two SNN ads, posters around the school, and infographics for social media,” Chris Ding ’25, NHS executive board member, said. “We try to make signing up easy, so the past week during lunch periods we had a table, with the forms printed out.”
To participate in the blood drive, students must be at least 16 years old, meet a weight requirement, and have a signed consent form. In addition, to incentivize participation, all donors received a coupon for a pint of frozen custard from Culver’s.
Stevenson partnered with the nonprofit organization Vitalant, which provided the equipment and personnel for the blood drive, as well as snacks for participants after their blood was drawn. Vitalant holds participants back for 15 minutes after their blood is drawn to monitor their condition.
“We want to really thank Vitalant for coming out here and giving our school the opportunity to impact this cause,” Ding said.
For participants, the blood drive is also an opportunity to determine what their blood type is. For blood drive participant Ryan Choi ’25, drawing his blood with friends made the process much better.
“Participating strengthens the idea that you’re giving back to your community,” Choi said. “There is no reason not to join…helping each other and society is how we build each other up.”