Brighton High School saves lives through biannual blood drive.

On Wednesday, March 16th, Brighton High School participated in the American Red Cross Blood Drive. This year, there were a lot of unexpected snow days throughout Michigan. Due to the weather and road conditions, countless blood drives had to be forced to close. Now to make up for those, Red Cross must make up for all the lost blood donation opportunities.

“We are the largest blood drive in all of Livingston County. Our school gives about 150 units of blood which can save approximately 300 lives. Last time Red Cross came to BHS, our wireless internet interfered with their computers, causing them to crash. Over 100 donors were turned away. To prevent this from happening, Red Cross is going to bring their own internet service so they can successfully collect blood from the donating students,” teacher Arnella Park said.

Each year, American Red Cross comes to BHS twice, once in the fall, and again in the spring, and collects blood from donating Brighton staff and students, ages 16 years old, with parent consent, or older. The American Red Cross organization provides emergency assistance, the collecting, processing, and distribution of donated blood, and more.

“I have given blood in the past and I’ve always have a good experience with it. I’m always happy to help others and if donating blood can save up to three lives, I am more than willing to participate in the blood drive. I also enjoy the free cookies and juice they give to you afterwards,” senior Nick Lindig said.

To participate in the blood drive, students must sign up at lunch. There are two sign up days the week prior to the blood drive. To ensure safety to both the blood donor and recipient, all volunteer blood donors must be evaluated to meet the eligibility requirements. To give blood, the donor must be in good health, weigh the correct amount of weight compared to their height, and meet the age limit. If one is not eligible to donate blood, they can still make a difference. Blood donation deferrals are mostly temporary, meaning they can still plan their next donation.

“It’s really important that we get a certain number of people into the door to reach our goal of blood donations. This year, our goal is 150 bags of blood. Most people don’t know that their blood donation has a turnaround of about 48 hours,” senior Jolin Cramer said.

Every year, Leadership is in charge and helps run the blood drive with teacher, Arnella Park. This is a really important blood drive because in the next few weeks, many families will be leaving for spring break. A lot of people do not see this as a big problem but it affects blood donations tremendously because traveling out of the country has become more and more common. When people travel out of the country, they will not be eligible to donate blood for another year.

“This means that their blood is being used to help someone else within 2 days of their donation. 97% of people will need some form of blood, platelets, or plasma in their lifetime. It’s important to give blood so that you can later receive from other donors,” Cramer said.

Article by: Konstantina Kostakos