Blackfoot High Schools’s blood drive

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OUCH. Boden Van Orden (11) gets his finger pricked.

   On Thursday December 12, 2019, seniors Aurora Loos and Tyler Gailey organized a blood drive at Blackfoot High School as their senior project. The blood drive was a huge success and the students at the high school who donated were able to help 102 people. When people volunteer to donate blood, they willingly give away one pint of their blood. This adds up to approximately 10% of your entire body’s blood volume.

   One component that helped inspire this project is, both Aurora and Tyler plan to study a certain aspect of the medical profession after high school. Aurora wants to become a labor and delivery nurse and Tyler would like to be a nurse. He has already successfully finished becoming a CNA (Certified Nurse Assistant) and is currently working on being completely certified as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) through the fire department. 

   These two students worked very hard to plan and organize this event. They had to contact the American Red Cross to get a group of phlebotomist to come to BHS, they had to get 65 donors to be able to carry out this blood drive, and they had to get volunteers to help make this project possible.

   When asked what statement this project was supposed to make, Tyler responded, “There’s a lot of ways we can help the community whether it’s going and picking up trash or donating a unit of blood to save some lives It’s just a way that people can help.” Every donation helps, and each pint of blood donated helps to save three lives. After being given the same inquiry, Aurora declared, “Fifteen to twenty minutes of your time can save three lives.” By taking less than half an hour out of your day to donate some blood, you are helping to save someone’s life.