The Leadership sponsored annual campus blood drive welcomed students, staff and community members on Tuesday, April 8 in the gym. At least, that was the plan until the unexpected water outage cut the event short.
The drive continued up until the end of 4th period, when the remainder of the school day was canceled due to a ruptured water pipe.
Blood donors were given food and drinks in order to make sure they maintained healthy levels of fluid and energy.
Blood drive organizers actually knew ahead of time of the water problem. “Probably around 8:30 in the morning, Benji came in and told us, before the entire school knew, that we might have to shut down because of the water and that we might have to leave school,” said senior class president Kendall Henderson.
“We heard a little bit before Walker made the announcement, so I was prepared for it, and we started packing up earlier before everyone else was released so it wouldn’t just be mass chaos,” Henderson added.
Henderson, who spearheaded the event, was disappointed. “We had to shut down the entire thing unfortunately, because of the school and safety issues,” she said.
According to Henderson, Leadership plans to have a makeup drive later in the year. The tentative date is set for sometime in May, but is not yet confirmed. “It just depends on the schedule and if the blood drive people have another date available,” Henderson said.
If it turns out that it is not possible to hold a makeup drive in the 2013-2014 school year, Leadership will add another event to next years’ agenda. The 2014-2015 school year will have two drives, one in fall and one in spring, to compensate.
The drives are hosted by Blood Centers of the Pacific. The organization hosts blood drives throughout Northern California, according to their website, and actively works with communities to bring “on-site” mobile blood drives to areas that are not located near an official center.
The drive held on campus was open to walk-ins from staff and members of the community. Students, however, had to fill out a form that gave them permission in order to donate.
Safety requirements were also in place to insure the health of donors. Males had to be over 5 feet tall to donate. Females, if they were under 5 feet 6 inches tall, had to meet certain weight requirements before they were cleared to donate.
Junior Kourosh Arasteh, who made it to the gym before the cancellation, said that he was happy to help. “It feels good to give back,” he said.
For Arasteh, the process was not too bad. The most uncomfortable part was the injection of saline solution given to donors after the blood has been extracted. “I think I’m freezing to death,” he said.
