On
Friday, October 24, the Student Council Association sponsored the blood drive.
This year, there were more students that signed up to give blood than ever
before. At the end of the day, students had to be turned away because they were
too packed. As a result, Virginia Blood Service received 93 pints of blood.
According
to SCA reporter Wendy Miller, English teacher Valerie Kibler arranged for the
Virginia Blood Services to come to the school. “It was our job to get people to
sign up a week before,” Miller said.
However,
the SCA was also responsible for setting up. “We all had to get the
[multi-purpose room] set up with chairs and we had to make sure that it was all
clean,” Miller said.
Miller,
who was also a blood donor, said that she hyped herself up before the day so
much that in reality, giving blood was not that bad. Yet, when students did not
calm down by the time they were scheduled to give, the SCA officers sat with
them. “We try to help people calm down if they are freaking out. We hold their
hands and talk to them,” Miller said.
Senior
Becky Harris decided to give blood when she heard about the drive. “Someone
else needs [the blood] more than I do,” Harris said. According to Harris, she
did not feel that nervous to give the blood.
For
most people, giving blood went smoothly and without any major problems. People
were willing to give and at the end of the day, they had too many students and
too little time to take all of their blood. “We were surprised at how many
people were willing to give,” Miller said. “[The turnout] was great!”
However,
for Harris, everything that could go wrong did. The problems that aroused for
Harris occurred after she actually gave the blood. “I got to give the whole
pint before all of the problems started,” Harris said. But when the nurse cut
the cord off and the needle was still in her arm, Harris began to feel
nauseous. At that point, Harris passed out.
“When I woke up, it was exactly like a movie,” Harris said. “I had ten people
around my chair and the nurses were asking ‘Rebecca can you hear me?’”
She
then threw up and had to sit in the chair for a long time. While she was being
helped by Miller and the nurse, she fainted a second time.
“I
woke up still throwing up into a bag,” Harris said. After this, Harris was told
to stay in the chair for an hour because if she did stand up, she felt dizzy.
Harris then waited for her dad to pick her up. The nurses advised Harris not to
give blood again.
At
the end of the long day, the SCA stayed to tidy up the multi-purpose room. “[SCA
Secretary] Jenn Downey and I cleaned up all of their trash and separated
cardboard from other trash until 5:00 p.m.,” Miller said.
This
spring, the SCA is planning on coordinating another blood drive. “We do not
know if it will be Virginia Blood Services, or the Red Cross,” Miller said.
“But we all hope that we do as well as we did this time.”
