The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) set a new record during their spring blood drive; the total of 75 students, faculty, and community donors surpassed their original goal of 62 participants.
Cassie Johnson, a senior, said, ”I donated blood because of the fact that I like knowing that I can help people…like, hey, I can do this and still be safe and make other people happy,” said Cassie Johnson, a senior at Monroe-Woodbury High School.
This spring, the organization wanted to go beyond and shoot for at least 62 donors, totaling 5,000 blood donations over the blood drive’s history. Each donor can give one pint of blood, which can save three lives.
“We usually get about 50 donations. We usually get less in the fall and more during the spring,” said Pravin Jegan, co-president of FBLA.
The blood drive on October 24 received only 40.
“Typically pre-COVID, we would get approximately 100 to 120 donations, and we would have to turn kids away because we just couldn’t get everybody in,” said Ms. Palkaunieks, the FBLA adviser.
My own donation lasted about 20 minutes, while some others had a duration of 15. The process was a bit tedious, since I had to be patient until the very end. Near the end, my arm started to cramp every so often. When I asked the volunteer staff member about it, they said it happens when the donor doesn’t have enough fluids.
According to Ms. Palkaunieks, the length varies based on the amount of water the donor consumed prior. The donation staff provide many snacks and drinks to make this process faster and easier.
Communication between the club and the student body about the blood drive is sometimes challenging. Students under 18 require parental permission to get their blood drawn. If a student decides to donate blood the day of the drive, they can’t unless a parent signs the form.
FBLA coordinated with Mrs. Wright and the health department to raise awareness for the blood drive in advance.
“The day before the drive, we had Pravin Jegan walking around with the blood drop costume, with Anya Malhotra, the other co-president of FBLA, assisting him. They had a sign up QR code on a piece of paper and they were handing out the permission slips in the cafeteria. They did that like the first ten minutes of every lunch period to announce that they were coming around,” said Ms. Palkaunieks.
They also gave presentations and hung posters throughout the school.
Appointments could be made on the New York Blood Center website, and the blood drive also took walk-ins.
Adults have priority over students in the blood drive line, so they can go ahead of students. According to some students, this caused frustrating wait times.
Senior Betsy Torres Fidel said, “The fact that the adults were being prioritized rather than students is understandable at first. But, after having groups of students waiting multiple hours to get their blood drawn, it’s a bit disappointing, as we too were missing class time.”
Torres Fidel, who walked-in to the drive, missed 5th through 8th period that day while waiting in line, nearly three hours.
“They [teachers] have a professional obligation, and that is simply the reason why. So they definitely had to go to the front of the line.The outside volunteers are part of the community, maybe that’s something we can negotiate or work with,” said Ms. Palkaunieks.
The New York Blood Center, who provide the blood drive’s staff and equipment, assigned the number staff based on the lower turnout during the fall blood drive. The large turnout this year was a surprise.
Ms. Palkaunieks spoke to an account manager for the New York Blood Center, who said there will hopefully be more staff and beds to account for next year’s amount of donors.
