Northwest Blood Drive

This year Northwest High School hosted a blood drive in the gymnasium between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Friday, February 11th run by LifeServe blood center. The drive is being run by Student Council. The LifeServe center donates blood throughout Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. By donating blood, hospitals are able to give blood transfusions and life-saving operations. LifeServe is able to serve counties that do not get any blood donations. Senior David Parks stated, “[The goal is to] get as much blood as we can.”

The high school is holding the blood drive for those over 16 years old and over 120 pounds. Those under 18 would need a parental consent form to donate blood. Both students and teachers are able to donate blood throughout the school day by signing up on the Life Serve website before the blood drive starts. People can donate either whole blood, one pint, or double red cells, two pints, for the drive. 

There are a couple ways to make giving blood easier. Sophomore Finley Habgood ephasized, “Drink water beforehand.” They hope to get a lot of blood from the around 40 people signed up for the drive. 

Students came into the gym, sat on the chairs, and were prepped to get one pint of their blood drawn. Nurses hook up the students to their bag and the students sit there waiting for the bag to fill. It only takes around 5 minutes for the bag to fill up and the students are able to sit down for a bit before leaving to go back to class. Student council members were around to help at the blood drive. Junior Taylor Haindfield stated, “I wanted to help out and volunteer because I felt like it was important!”. She added that it’s great that people are donating blood and want to be there for those donating.

Sophomore, Jenna Le, expressed, “There wasn’t a reason as to why I donated. But after listening to people talk about the blood drive and how you could impact someone’s life, I was glad I had signed up.” She added that to prepare for getting blood drawn, to have something to distract from the procedure like listening to music rather than focus on the needle. Many people donated because of a personal connection or want to give. Senior Farakh Haider revealed, “When I was younger I had a blood disease twice, and being able to be here I think I’m obligated to give back”.