Campo encouraged students and staff to donate blood and help a good cause in the annual blood drive on April 14. Students were required to be at least 16 years old and had the opportunity to donate blood throughout the day.

This year Campo worked with a new vendor, the Stanford Blood Center, which is associated with Stanford University Hospital. The Stanford Blood Center was first created in 1978, and has grown rapidly ever since. The center differentiates from many other organizations, being the first blood center organization in America to screen donors for a type of virus believed to cause Adult Leukemia, T-Lymphotropic Virus Type. Stanford Blood Center’s Mission is to “lead the fields of transfusion and transplantation medicine by advancing science and technology, and enhance lives by connecting donors to patients every day.”

Leadership student sophomore Avery Jules said, “It was a lot of planning from our Philanthropy Board. They have been really hands on with everything and getting it all organized, working with the Stanford Blood Center to make it all possible.”

The Leadership class worked with the school nurse Karen Thornberg, as well as medical professionals from the organization and various others to make the blood drive possible. The checking-in process for blood donors took around an hour, but drawing blood only took ten minutes. Leadership sent out the sign-ups and reminders, while the medical professionals handled the questionnaires and most of the actual blood drive.

Freshman Rhett Hollyfield on the Philanthropy Board said, “About two months ago, we first got in contact with the Stanford Blood Center and a few weeks later, they sent a representative to talk to us about what was going to happen. The month after that was just us recruiting people to donate their blood, meet the requirements, making sure they filled out a time slot, got spreadsheets organized, and made sure the blood center was on board.”

The blood from the drive can help people, ranging from burn victims, those awaiting surgery, and to those who are battling cancer.

Leadership teacher Lindsay Webb-Peploe said, “The blood goes to all of the hospitals that Stanford University is in contract with, and one donation of blood actually saves four separate lives. There is a very high need for people to donate blood because people have become much more scared, or conscious because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so less people are signing up to donate blood which means both life-saving surgeries as well as elective surgeries are not able to be done.”

Many Campo students came together to donate blood. When asked why she decided to donate blood, junior Ruby Cutler said, “I knew it was a really good thing to do, and my mom donates her blood a lot and said it wasn’t that painful. I was a little nervous because I had never donated blood before, but it was really easy and didn’t take long. I think they were pretty efficient with it and I would definitely donate my blood again.”