By Ananya Sharma, Staff Writer
On February 17, River Hill High School hosted a blood drive for students and staff members. The blood drive was organized by River Hill Junior Sanjana Jain and the Red Cross club.
Blood donation is extremely important as it saves countless lives every day. According to the American Red Cross Organization, every two seconds someone in the United States is in need of blood, whether it be for cancer treatments, orthopedic surgeries, cardiovascular surgeries, traumatic injuries, or treatments for inherited blood disorders.
Despite this need for donated blood, only around three percent of age-eligible people donate each year. Blood cannot be manufactured outside the body and it has a short shelf life, so new blood must be constantly supplied from donors.
To help contribute to this cause, Sanjana Jain decided to organize a blood drive at River Hill. According to Sanjana, “I initially started planning this in the summer of 2022, so it’s been a while coming… First I had to reach out to the Red Cross representative for the Chesapeake Bay, Linda Kane, who oversees all of this blood drive planning stuff for students. Then I had to contact the school administration. I had several meetings with Mrs. Lidgard, as well as Nurse Lancashire. They both helped me decide things like the date and basic things I needed. And then I mainly worked independently for a while, and recently this past month I connected with the Red Cross presidents.”
On the day of the blood drive, staff from the Red Cross organization came to River Hill and set up their donation extraction equipment, and students who had signed up dropped in throughout the day. In order to donate, you must meet certain requirements: you must be at least 16 years old, have a temperature below 99.5, meet the weight and height requirements, and receive parental consent by February 7th.
It was recommended to prepare before the blood drive by getting 8 hours of sleep, eating iron-rich foods, and drinking lots of water. Julia Purdue commented, “I had like a small breakfast and drank a lot of water, more than usual.”
During the donation, donors gave a pint of their blood, with the entire process taking around 8 to 10 minutes. Junior Zeeshan Nazir noted, “When the needle first came in, it kind of pinched a bit, but other than that it didn’t hurt… They basically tested me for my iron and they put a needle around me and they swabbed me and stuff. Then they just entered the tube into my veins and got a quart of my blood.”
After the donation was over, donors could go to the refreshment area with snacks and liquids and rest there for a few minutes. Zeeshan shared, “I feel good after donating, but I’m a bit light headed.”
The blood donors each had unique reasons to donate their blood, senior Nico Lancashire said, “my blood is gonna be given to patients that really need it in emergencies, so I honestly just like saving a life.” Senior Mohnish Mahajan added, “My friend recruited me, and it seemed like a really good cause since you can save up to three lives per donation. So I figured I would try it.”
Around 34 people signed up for the blood drive. Sanjana explained, “I was honestly expecting more involvement from River Hill general since our student community is so big and we have around 400 people who are eligible, like at least. So I was kind of disappointed with the low number, but it’s still a decent amount because I think we will technically be able to save more than 100 lives.”
Overall, the blood drive at River Hill was a successful way to donate blood to help serve our community and help many people.