Last week OLHS held a blood drive for the American Red Cross association. During the school day on Friday, students and staff flocked down to the aux gym to donate. In order to donate you had to be 16 or 17 with parent permission or 18 and older. Students who donated, like Danielle Torson’ 25 were happy with their experience and proud to be a donor.
“I’m glad I could contribute to my community in a positive way,” Torson said. “It feels good to know that the blood I donated today could really help people.”
Donating blood isn’t scary or hard. At liberty, the blood drive faculty made the process easy and relatively quick. Sadie Seggerson’ 25 enjoyed a very positive experience with the blood drive team.
“My experience was pretty quick and painless,” Seggerson said. “Everyone was super nice and I got snacks at the end.”
The 25 minutes taken to donate 10 percent of your blood can save up to three people in need of blood. Giving back to the community is a huge motivator for many of the people who donated last week.
“I donated last year and I came back this year because I care about my community and love being able to give back,” Seggerson said.
This event wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the students who volunteered to sign people up and hand out snacks after the donors gave blood. Many students sacrificed class time to help out at the blood drive.
“I wanted to volunteer so I could help people and make a difference in my community,” Sophia Mattis’ 25 said. “It’s the little things like this that can make a big impact on people’s lives.”
The American Red Cross association, which funded this event, is grateful to all the people who donated their time and blood to potentially save lives. OLHS faculty is happy to be able to host events like this to give back to the community.
“I hope other people see that helping people doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming,” Torson said. “Hopefully people see this and feel inspired to give back.”
