FAHS to Host Blood Drive

“I do the blood drive because it is nice to be part of being bigger than myself, and it is nice to spend my time doing something that I know will benefit others, especially during this COVID time,” student Sacha Joseph said.

Fleetwood Area High School has been working with Miller-Keystone for over fifteen years to organize blood drives every year. These blood drives allow students to donate their blood to those in need.

This year, the blood drive has been a little different due to COVID. Instead of holding it in the library, mobile coaches are used. This requires the blood drive to have to go on multiple days in order to make sure those who want to donate are all able to do so. The blood drives are held three times a year: October, January, and April. This year’s third blood drive will be 19, 21, and 23 April, with appointment times from 7:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.

The requirements to donate blood are fairly simple to meet. Students must be sixteen-years-old, have no tattoos or piercings in the past three months, and weigh more than 110 lbs. All students also must undergo a mini-physical to make sure it’s safe for them to donate. Unfortunately, some medical issues a student may have disqualify them from donating, like having undergone chemotherapy or possessing certain conditions.

It is very important to donate blood, simply because there is no way to synthesize it yet. It must be given to a person in need by a matching donor. Blood also cannot be stored long-term so regular donors are needed to ensure local hospitals have enough on hand to help accident victims, premature babies, and those going through treatments that damage the blood.

“Platelets only last 5 days, whole blood can only be stored a little less than two months, and even plasma can only be stored for a year if frozen,” science teacher Ms. Jennifer Neiman, who has donated over 46 gallons of blood, said.

Neiman is very passionate about being a donor, donating platelets every two weeks and plasma once a month.  She has also been helping coordinate the blood drives here at school for four years.