Moorestown High School held two Red Cross blood drives on Nov. 19, one in the school auditorium and the other in the cafeteria.
“Interact (the Interact Club of Moorestown High) has several big events that we sponsor throughout the year, and we (usually) historically do four blood drives,” said Interact advisor Liz Everette.
One drive is held before school starts in August, one around November, one on Martin Luther King Day and one in the spring in April or May. Last year’s drives, though, were impacted by COVID, and were unable to include the student body.
“We had a blood drive in the MAC gym (Moorestown Athletic Center) during the day when the building was empty for the community,” said Everette. “But we were not able to run the (kinds) of blood drives that we have historically run or that we’re running this year.”
This year’s drives were held separately to abide by COVID health and safety precautions.
“The goal of this (one) is really to get students to have a good, positive first experience donating blood,” noted Everette.
It is mostly seniors who donate; students 16 and older need parental permission. All donations go directly to the Red Cross.
“You can donate something called Power Red, which is (actually) just removing the blood platelets,” Everette explained, “and that can equal up to two pints, although for first time donors and high school students (usually) they’re a little nervous about that, (so) most of our students are (just) donating the regular kind of blood.”
“You can save (up to) three lives with a blood donation and (so) we want to encourage that in our student body,” she added.
The student blood drive has always been a positive day, Everette noted.
“We have volunteers from Interact participate and help,” she explained. “And all the students, they feel really good about doing something selfless and helping others. It is nice when they have that positive experience and know that something they did is going to help someone (that) they will never meet.”
