Dakota Ridge High School will be hosting a blood drive on February 27th. This is the second blood drive at Dakota Ridge during the 2023/2024 school year. DRHS students, staff, and teachers are encouraged to donate blood for Vitalant Blood Drive Services. The drive will be happening from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the auxiliary gym.
Donors are given a questionnaire once they sign in. The questionnaire aims to weed out people who may have a blood disease that could be passed onto the person receiving the blood. Questions include gathering information about recent travels, sexual activity, height, weight, and other details that might affect the donor’s blood health.
After filling out paper work, the donor has a private conference with a blood drive worker to look over the paper work. The phlebotomists run a health screen of the donor, as well as a finger prick to determine if their blood is healthy enough to be donated. Once everything is approved, the phlebotomists have the donor sit on a bed where they can then draw the blood. The actual blood draw can take anywhere from five to thirty minutes, depending on the blood flow. After that, the donor can take a snack before heading back to continue their day.
Prior to donating blood, donors have to take care of themselves. Vitalant provides a “blood donation preparation guide” on their website, and it also suggested that donors eat a “healthy, low-fat meal within two hours of your donation” and a salty snack the day before, as well as drink eight to sixteen ounces of “non-alcoholic beverages.”
“High school kids are chronically dehydrated,” PE teacher Amy Ziegler said. “The more hydrated you are, the faster your blood flows, so it’s super important for people going to donate to hydrate like crazy the day before. And eat a good breakfast — a good breakfast is not a granola bar.”
Without blood donations, hospitals struggle to save lives and help those in need. One in four people will need a transfusion at some point in their lives, and one donation can save up to three lives, according to Ziegler. Blood cannot be made or bought by hospitals, it has to come from volunteers.
Ziegler, who has been running the drives for years, believes that the small pain from the needle is “a small price to pay” for the impact it may have on another person’s life.
“Imagine the person you’re giving it to,” Zeigler said. “It could be a child who has to get poked with needles all day, every day, because they have cancer, or it’s a car accident victim who can’t even function. It’s a small price to pay, when can you leave school and say, “I just saved up to three people’s lives.”
To sign up for the blood drive, set up a time using the SignUpGenius link on the Dakota Ridge Instagram page (@dakotaridgehighschool) or on the school website.
