Surpassing This Year’s Blood Drive Goal

Fair Grove’s yearly winter Blood Drive was hosted on December 3, 2021. This year, it’s goal was surpassed with 91 students registered and 75 pints of blood donated.

“This is a great opportunity for our FBLA and DECA officers to plan a community service event that allows the entire school and community the opportunity to give back. Also, all of the blood donated to CBCO stays local, so you know you are helping out your neighbors when you participate in this selfless act,” Cayse Overstreet, one of the school coordinators for the Blood Drive, stated. FBLA is a club called Future Business Leaders of America and DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America.

In most states donors usually have to be 17 or older, but some states (such as Missouri) allow teenagers as young as 16 to donate with a signed parental consent form. According to the American Red Cross Blood Services website (redcrossblood.org), donors must weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. Plasma from donations is fully replaced in 24 hours, with red cells replenishing in four to six weeks. This is why blood donors taking full blood donations recommend a downtime of three months between donating and up to a maximum of 24 donations in a single year.

Braden Booth, a Fair Grove student organizer of the Blood Drive, commented, “The blood drive is a great event. Reactions are minor (if students have them at all) and they are nothing compared to what our recipients have to go through. This blood goes to people who have cancer, who have been in accidents, or who have rare diseases. The things they go through put into perspective just how important this is, but also how relatively easy it is to donate blood.”

In addition to saving three lives per blood donation, there are a number of benefits to hosting student Blood Drives. One benefit of participating in blood drive includes the donation of blood counts as one community service hour. According to the article New Survey Shows Value Of Community Service In College Admissions by Derek Newton, “But most admissions leaders (53%) also said community service was essentially a tie-breaker between equally qualified students.”

Overstreet explained, “In a society and culture that tells us, it’s all about us, this is a great opportunity for students to put others before themselves. There is very little risk to students. They are in good hands with the CBCO (Community Blood Center of the Ozarks) team and would not be allowed to donate if it was a risk to their health.”