On Oct. 11, 2023, students got into the Halloween spirit by giving their blood for the biannual Vitalant blood drive, hosted by Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech)’s BioScience Academy.
Students Claire Hadley ‘24, Aadhya Bavker ‘25 and Jane Kim ‘26 helped to organize the event. Anyone ages 16 and older who meet the requirements had the opportunity to give blood to those in need locally.
Kiana Felix ‘25 expressed her feelings about the blood drive, and why she believes it is important to donate, “I’m donating blood because I think it important, when one person does it it tends to catch on and the more blood you donate the more lives you save.”
Loren Romero ‘25 shared, “I’m giving blood because I think it’s an easy way to help the community as a highschooler. It’s a big way to make a good impact.”
Vitalant provided vans for the students who were willing to provide their blood. Outside of the vans, BioScience Academy students who hosted the event had a few different tables for the donors. They offered sign up sheets, water bottles and snacks for students who were drawing blood. They also gave complimentary shirts commemorating the event.
Bavker explained the reasons for the blood drive and expressed the process of hosting the event, “We’ve always partnered with Vitalant so we have an ongoing relationship with them … all we have to do is get donors to sign up and they organize pretty much everything else.”
“The blood drive saves lives and each person who donates blood can save up to three lives … We partner with Vitalant especially because they donate our blood to local hospitals,” she finished.
Dragons with colorful patches around their arms, marking them as donors, littered the halls. In the end, 52 pints of blood were collected, with the potential of saving up to 122 lives.
