Students participate in annual blood drive to help the community

Sixty-three students gave a pint of their blood during the April 21 on-campus drive and got a nice reward in return: a gift card for a pint of Baskin Robbins ice cream.

The event was hosted by the Community Commission, with the help of the Stanford Blood Drive. 

“There’s a large deficit of blood donation so it really helps out,” said junior Jennifer Kim, one of the head commissioners in charge of the drive. 

The Blood Drive is one small piece in helping the overall blood supply because every two seconds somebody needs blood; however, there is only a small population who donate blood, according to Kim. 

“Only 37 percent of the U.S. population is even eligible, and of those 37 percent, only 5 percent actually do donate,” Kim said. “And 20 percent of our community blood supply comes from these mobile blood drives at colleges and high schools across the Bay Area, so it's really crucial that we do this every year.”

Anyone 17 or older can donate blood, and students who are 16 can donate blood with a parental permission slip. Sign-ups were required before hand on a Google Forum on the Facebook page or on assistant principal Kerry Mohnike’s door. 

 Senior Allison Chang, another head commissioner of the drive, said the reason for the sign-ups was to make it possible to pull students out of class and clear those absences.

The Stanford Blood Drive checked to see if the student was suitable blood donor through a mini-physical. The minimum weight is 110 pounds and students could not donate blood if they have been out of the country within the past three years to avoid risk of transferring diseases. During the pre-screening, they also checked for diseases and hemoglobin levels. 

Although donating blood is a charitable contribution to society, some students such as junior Narain Mandyam said they were a little nervous  the first time they donated blood.

“I really was nervous about donating blood, I didn’t know if it was going to hurt, but I wanted to do this because I wanted to give back to my community,” Mandyam said.

Another student, junior Amanda Moriarty was initially lightheaded and dizzy, after her donation, but she is still glad she contributed to the drive.

 “It’s a good cause that my family members have done [donated blood for], so it’s something that I have always wanted to do,” said Moriarty. “I had a good experience and would definitely do it again next year.”