With the motto of, “Donate blood now…people can’t live without it,” plastered on posters across the school, some may wonder what exactly went on at the blood drive. This blood drive was sponsored by the Helping Hands Committee, meaning that the general group of people in Helping Hands sponsored the blood drive rather than any specific committee. Peter Wilson, the advisor of Helping Hands, was the one who facilitated the blood drive on the day of. This blood drive was the first blood drive of 2017 and was hosted in partnership with the New York Blood Center. On March 17, from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM, a bus known as the bloodmobile was available with staff, donor beds, and refreshments to ease the process. Helping Hands’ was to collect at least 35 pints of blood for New York City hospitals and other medical facilities to use.
Approximately 45 appointments were made BSGE students, despite the cold weather on the day of the blood drive. However, of those 45 appointments, only 25 were accepted. Despite how enthusiastic students in BSGE were to donate blood, factors including blood type, blood iron level, weight, height, and countries recently visited affected whether or not one would be accepted to donate blood. Peter mentioned that during the dozen years Helping Hands had sponsored the blood drive, around 65 people would sign up during warm weather, but of those, about one-third to one-half would be rejected.
Though many people were rejected due to factors out of their control, the 25 who were accepted meant that a lot of blood was still donated, 25 pints to be precise. While that may not seem like a lot of blood to be donated to a blood drive, seeing as the goal of Helping Hands was to raise at least 35 pints of blood, this should be put into perspective. “For every pint of blood donated,” said Peter Wilson, “the lives of 3 people are able to be saved,” meaning that this saved the lives of 75 people. Some might see that as a small number, but to those 75, it made all the difference in the world.
The BACC Rag 