The Spartan community has come together again; this time partaking in an event to help others who can’t help themselves.
The WS blood drive was the perfect opportunity for students to provide aid to other people in our community by donating blood to those who need it for surgery or blood transfusions.
It wasn’t too difficult to sign up for this event. All one needed was an ID, to be 16 years of age or older, 100 pounds or more, and have all their forms to participate signed and filled out correctly.
Before giving his or her blood, the student needed to be pricked to make sure their iron count was high enough to donate, and if it wasn’t, they were denied and were not able to participate in the event, which lead to some disappointment for some students who wanted to participate and help.
“My iron was low so I wasn’t allowed to do it,” said junior Kelli Jeter, “I was really looking forward to it.”
Some people took the blood drawing easily, but others not so much. Certain individuals had trouble participating due to low iron, or were just plain afraid of doing it. People have fainted due to the sight of blood itself, and others have no trouble dealing with it at all; those people are the best candidates for the task.
Students who passed the iron screening were permitted to donate, and then they were given a stress ball to squeeze so the nurses could find their vein in order to take their blood and send it to various hospitals and treatment centers for people who need it.
“I wanted to do something good for someone else and it’s not that hard,” said senior Collin Farquhar, “It’s really helpful and you only have to take an hour out of your day.”
Donating blood is a great way to contribute to others and the community even if you don’t have time. It’s fairly easy, considering the person donating just has to lie down and relax while someone else, like a registered nurse or doctor, does all the work for you.
The WS community really came together for this event to help others, and the turnout of the people who participated was great. Tons of people in the area in need of a blood transfusion will be thankful for the students and staff that participated in the event here. Nearly 21 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S. and every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood, so there’s a big demand for blood donations.
“It’s for a really good cause and I was happy to do it,” said Farquhar.