Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. On Thursday November 6th, Amador Students decided to act on it. Amador leadership collaborated with The Red Cross to host a blood drive. This gave students and community members the opportunity to help.
“I encourage students to donate, it’s just a couple minutes out of your day to help someone’s life and it could change someone’s life. Overall its just very important to just the whole healthcare system,” said blood donor Anusha Shelatkar (‘26).
Blood Drive Preparations
As a way to better organize school events, the leadership class split into committees. The community service committee organizes the blood drives. They are in charge of finding ways to give back to the community.
“We sent out a lot of emails to get the dates right to confirm that it was okay, and then we set up our portals so that we could input people’s names. We created a genius sign up and then a Google form so people could sign up. We had a video call and phone calls with The Red Cross in order to coordinate all the details so the day could be a success,” said leadership student Savannah Stoehr (‘27).
The Red Cross members processed the blood donations. They sent employees to set up the equipment for the blood draw and oversee the blood drive. All of this was to ensure it ran smoothly.
“Once we open, students have to do a questionnaire, answer some health screening questions, make sure [they are] able to donate. We take their vitals and their information. We get a pint of 500 mL, per student. And then they get about 15 minutes to relax, enjoy the snacks after donating, and go on their way,” said Red Cross employee Robert Gutierz.
Safety Precautions
Amador and the Red Cross also worked hard to guarantee the safety of the donors. Following procedures similar to that of a hospital. This meant maintaining a sterile environment to keep everyone safe.
“We do the house screening and everything because we want to make sure there’s nothing that is compromising the blood on their side. On our side, we do the arm scrub, make sure everything is clean. And then between each donor, we sanitize all our equipment,” said Gutierz.
Giving to the Community
Donating blood is a great way to give back to the community. An opportunity like a school wide blood drive is a great and easy way to get involved. The process is made fairly simple because of leadership and red cross working together.
“I think it is really important to give blood to help people as it is. You’re giving the gift of life, and even if, like, you can’t donate, I think it’s important to encourage other people and maybe, like, join the Red Cross Club and just help volunteer in that way,” said Savannah Stoehr (‘27).
