East Leyden hosted their first of two blood drives for the 2019-2020 school year in the north gym. Over 100 students participated in this student council sponsored event, to save about 300 lives. Students from the age of 16 -18 come and donate their blood during school to help support a cause. All blood that is donated is sent to local hospitals through the company Vitalent, which also helps students earn scholarship money as well.

     Junior Nicole Virzi donated blood last spring and decided to save some lives again this winter. The reason she decided to donate blood again was to help save lives and spend some time with friends. When asked what her least favorite part was about donating she responded with most people’s fear, the needle entering the vein. Even though this was the worst part, she keeps coming back because as everyone knows, donating blood saves a lot of lives. 

     Senior Julianna Cruz, has donated blood three times, all being at the school blood drive. Donating blood has some precautions, you have meet a certain weight requirement. When she donated blood for the first time, the nurses were worried since she barely met the weight requirements. Most people may be asking why there is a weight requirement, well that is because you are giving a pint of blood and that’s a lot if your under 110 pounds. It would cause you to feel very nauseous and might make you pass out, but that was sophomore year and now she’s a pro. Julianna’s favorite part of donating blood might be most people’s least favorite, “My favorite part is actually donating the blood and just chilling there.”

     As someone who has never actually donated blood, this does intrigue me, but at the same time I still have my worries and doubts, as do most of the students at East Leyden.  Donating blood does save a lot of people and is for a good cause, so next time you feel like skipping it because you don’t like the finger prick or needle, think about how many people you could be saving.