To donate blood for those in need, through the Red Cross, Souderton Area High School hosts an annual blood drive.
This year the fall blood drive took place on October 29.
Wellness teacher and blood drive coordinator Karin Clark organizes the school’s blood drives with the Red Cross.
According to Clark giving blood can cause “a little bit of anxiety,” but the impact of the task makes it worth it.
“It’s okay to be anxious but the whole process, when you understand the process of it, is really not that bad,” Clark said. “When you take a step back and think about why you are [donating blood], you may have a little bit of anxiety, but in the end it is really worth it.”
Sophomore Patrick Kemp also believes that while the idea of giving blood can cause some to be “nervous” it is a very “important thing to do.”
According to sophomore Lea Kershaw, even though she passed out while giving blood it did not take away from the valuable experience.
“I will still give blood again in the spring,” Kershaw said. “I feel as long as you don’t have a fear of needles there is no reason not to [give blood], and it will help someone else.”
Not only can giving blood be an eye-opening experience for the donors, but it also can be life changing, or life saving, for the recipients.
“I’ve had people who have needed blood donations in the past and there has been a shortage of blood so I know it is an important thing to do,” autistic support teacher Jennifer Granito said. “I have a friend right now with Leukemia and he needs platelets and red blood cells, so I try to do that for other people.”
According to junior Tristan McGiboney, he decided to give blood in order to help others.
“[I wanted] to help people that need it and to give back to people,” McGiboney said.
One of Clark’s goals for bettering the high school’s blood drives in the future is to continue to get more student participants.
“I really want to get more students involved and kind of drum up business from a student perspective,” Clark said.
In order to meet this goal Clark hopes to start a club in association with the blood drives for student representatives to encourage more participation amongst the student body.
“I really want to get students involved, so a goal I have before our next blood drive is to get a club to try to get student leaders involved because I think that with advertisements now, we are not really reaching everyone that could possibly do it,” Clark said. “I would love to see if anyone is interested in starting a club to get more involvement and more students signed up.