On the morning of March 8th, the spring blood drive kicked off in the Carbondale Community High School gym. Every year, CCHS student council holds two blood drives, one in each semester. 

To donate, students have to be at least 16 years old and meet the height and weight requirements. These students sign up ahead of time and then are excused from their classes to donate. Members from the public are also welcome to come and donate.

Before a student is eligible to donate, they go through a series of through questions to determine if their blood is healthy enough to be distributed. All of these questions are asked in a private setting to ensure that the respondent is being honest. Once they answer these questions other factors are tested like their iron levels and blood pressure to ensure their health is not being put at risk.

After the series of tests and questions, a donor is then laid on a bed and hooked up to an IV that takes the blood. During this a donator might become light headed and feel ill, this is where the members of student council help. The Stu Co. members are walking around assisting the donors, bringing them juice and snacks and overall providing moral support.

When asked about her time donating, senior Sarah Russell said, “I love donating, I think it’s

really cool… Everyone here is super nice and supportive and the nurses were awesome.”

Once they’ve given enough blood, a donor is then given a t-shirt, a chance to rest, and some students receive extra credit from their social studies classes for a successful donation. 

Once the blood drive had concluded, it was announced that Stu Co. had collected 123 pints from the spring drive, making the total amount of pints donated this year 326. This will help over 350 people through the efforts of the Red Cross

Holding these blood drives has a big benefit on the community. Red Cross highlights these benefits on their website: “Blood donations to the Red Cross are extremely vital and impactful, working to supply life-saving resources to 40 percent of hospital patients across the U.S. including those with cancer, pregnancy complications, and accident and trauma victims.”