By Delaney Dine

“The blood drive has been going on since before I was here,” Bellbrook’s HOSA advisor Rebecca Goodwin said. “It’s been a long time. The nurse used to do it, and then when COVID shut it down, we opened it back up when HOSA started.”

Bellbrook High School held the annual blood drive on December 8. Goodwin and some other members explained why it is so important not just to give blood, but also to encourage more high school students to do it.

“It’s super important that we get a lot of high school students because there’s some interesting factors in blood that everybody doesn’t understand,” Goodwin said. “There’s not just type A, type B, type O. There’s all these other antigens that can affect how certain people handle blood.”

“For crisis situations you’re fine with any kind of blood, like an accident,” Goodwin said. “But people who have cancer, especially blood cancers, can start getting an antibody response to blood, and so they have to find a perfect match.”

“When you add the new high school students, you have the ability to help more people,” Goodwin said. “To help children with cancer, adults with cancer, people with sickle cell diseases. It’s extremely important that we get these new donors in there so we can help people.”

“The blood getting donated can save someone’s life or even just let them live a little longer so that their loved ones can say goodbye to them,” senior and member of HOSA Isa Tungol said.

“It can make such a huge change,” Tungol said. “I think when people see that, then they want to help make that change and make a difference in the world.”

“You can save three lives by donating blood, with the red blood cells, white blood cells, and plasma,” Tungol said.

Preparation for the blood drive, including basic medical training, organization, promotion, and providing food and drinks has kept the HOSA club busy. 

“We do an education for the people who are helping run the blood drive,” Goodwin said. “We have to make sure everyone understands the importance of things like eating after they do a blood donation. The students will be there making sure there’s food and things like that. The organization that visits doesn’t do most of the scheduling. We all have to do that.”

“We’re the ones that have to promote it,” Goodwin said. “We have to bring people in. It’s a lot of work for a solid two weeks before.”

“We made posters, posted on social media, just got the word out,” senior and president of HOSA Helena Underbakke said.

According to Goodwin, a total of 66 donors registered to donate, and 34 were first time donors.  The goal was 43 units. They collected 56, achieving 130% of the club’s goal.