news.
Donate Blood,
Save Lives
Junior Caelan Bradfield-Woodheadand and senior Gabbi Watkins run the blood donation check-in booth outside of Cokely Gym. Photo by Charlene Nguyen
AP Biology Blood Drive makes a difference in our community. Reported by Caty Franklin
Design by Jennavieve Carmony
The doors of Cokely Gym are wide open, early in the morning on Friday, February 7. AP Biology students mill around, directing the flow of students waiting to donate. Some students wait patiently, ready to donate, but some are nervously awaiting their turn. It functions like a well-oiled machine, and the line moves quickly from check in, to waiting inside the gym, to sitting on one of the many medical chairs lined up in the gym. The medical staff from the Community Blood Center are efficient. Once the donors have donated blood, they move to a station laid out with cookies and orange juice, and then are directed back to class. This act of one student donating just one pint of blood can save up to three lives. In the Liberty community, the blood drive has become a necessity for the local hospitals to get the blood donations they need, this year donating 228 units of blood, according to AP Biology teacher, Aaron Hohn, who runs the blood drive for LHS. “The Community Blood Center is at critical levels this year and they were at critically low levels last year as well,” Hohn said. “Anything we can do to help restock the blood that’s
supplying all of the Northland hospitals in the area is going to benefit our area.” Over the past five years, the blood drive has been receiving fewer and fewer donations, but Hohn and his students hope to turn the corner this year.
“The donors will be making a life-changing difference for the people who are in need of the blood,” senior Sydney Cannon said. “It gives everyone an opportunity to play a role in helping out people in need.” The Community Blood Center works with
Juniors Bonnie Fordyce and Lauren Taylor sport matching AP Bio Blood Drive shirts.
10
Photo by Emma McDonald
the bell February 2020 News
