From two p.m. to six p.m. on Wednesday, September twentieth, the Red Cross will be here (or more specifically, in the cafeteria) for a blood drive.
I talked to Mr. Will about his thoughts on the blood drive, and he said he is very passionate about the cause because he had a family member who needed blood. He’s been donating since he was in high school, and was the blood drive coordinator his first six years here. He also said that every year the Red Cross awards a scholarship if we get enough people to donate blood. If we get at least two hundred people to donate blood, we get a two thousand five hundred dollar scholarship.
Here are some facts about blood drives:
- Just one donation can save up to three lives.
- Every two seconds someone in the US needs blood or platelets.
- Approximately twenty-nine thousand units of red blood cells are needed every day in the US.
- Blood and platelets cannot be artificially made.
- Your blood type includes more than the A, B, Ab, O, and positive and negative; there are over 300 different types of blood.
- Red blood cells must be used in forty-two days or less, while platelets must be used in five days or less.
- A single car accident victim may need as much as one hundred pints of blood.
- Only about thirty-seven percent of people are eligible to donate blood, but only about three percent of eligible people donate blood.
- Donating blood usually takes only one hour and fifteen minutes.
- All information given during the donation process is confidential.
- Eighty percent of the blood given to the Red Cross is given at mobile drives set up at organizations, community colleges, companies, places of worship, military installations, or high schools like ours.
Sources:
https://www.isbtweb.org/isbt-working-parties/rcibgt.html
https://www.umms.org/-/media/files/ummc/community/blood-facts
