March 29, 2024

NHS student council pushes for larger turnout at blood drive

General public can donate at high school for April 15 event

Announcements about blood donations sometimes use emotional pleas about shortages and the desperate need to resolve shortages in area blood banks. Rachel Prendergast takes a completely different approach.

“It’s a chance to give back to the community,” she said.

Prendergast, a Newton High School senior and the student council vice president said there is as much a push as ever to get people to donate blood at the council’s April 15 drive. She said caring about the community should be one of the reasons Jasper County residents should turn out for the annual event.

“This is something we feel almost everyone can get involved with,” Prendergast said. “The more people we can get to come out, the more everyone will feel like this is a community event — not just something the high school does.”

NHS hosts two blood drives per year — one in the winter, and another in the spring. Prendergast said unlike “Bloodmobile” events, held in highly visible parking lots on busy days, the high school’s blood drive is held in the multi-purpose room on a weekday, out of view of most of the public.

“A lot of people I talked to didn’t know that anyone can go to the blood drive,” Prendergast said. “They thought it was just for the school.”

LifeServe, a Des Moines-based blood center, is sending professionals to NHS for the blood drive, which runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. There are 146 donation slots to fill, based on staffing, so there is room for many Jasper County residents to participate.

LifeServe, according to its website, is among the top 15 largest blood centers in the U.S., supplies blood to more than 100 Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota hospitals. The types of blood that are most needed are types O-Negative, B-Negative and AB-negative, but the center always needs as much of every type.

Restrictions might prevent LifeServe from collecting blood from people who meet certain health criteria. But, by and large, anyone age 18 or older can donate — age 16 and older can donate with parental permission. Permission forms are available in the NHS front office.

A questionnaire is completed by everyone who shows up to donate blood. Prendergast said the setup will be slightly different this time around, in terms of having a waiting “recovery” area outside the multi-purpose room.

Escorts will be standing by to help people complete the process safely.

The blood drive is one of the main annual benefit events organized by the NHS student council. Prendergast, council president McKenna Heisdorffer and the rest of the council also helped with the “Sunglasses for El Salvador” project, plus prom and Homecoming preparations. A teacher breakfast is coming up in a few weeks, she said. Prendergast said she’s looking forward to the blood drive.

“We just need to find people willing to give up a few minutes, and that could save a life,” she said.