Student Council advertised that three lives can be saved from one pint of blood.

On Tuesday, 120 lives were saved at the blood drive, which was held in the South Gym, run by Student Council and the Red Cross. All of these lives were saved due to the tremendous amount of blood, 40 pints, that was donated during the blood drive.

Manhattan High puts on two blood drives every year to help donate blood to hospitals for people needing blood transfusions. Junior class representatives Hannah Higgins and Elizabeth Chapman from Student Council helped plan the blood drive in partnership with the Red Cross.

“The school is a great place to have a blood drive because there’s so many people that are eligible to give blood,” Higgins said. “We’ve had a partnership with the Red Cross for a lot of years now, so [we’ve been] keeping the tradition alive and giving students the opportunity to give back to Red Cross and the community.”

During the time of the blood drive, donating blood is essential for some students.

“It’s something that is extremely easy to do,” sophomore and donator Rylee Felice said. “It helps up to three people so it seemed stupid not to do it.”

Without donating blood, it leaves some students in a place of regret.

“There’s a constant need for blood,” Felice said. “Because of this, it people don’t donate their blood, then other people will die when their is an easy solution.”

During the course of the blood drive, 80% of students who signed up were eligible to donate blood without deferrals. These deferrals include low iron deficiency and being underweight.

“Some people have like iron deficiencies, or some people were just underweight,” Chapman said. “You have to have a certain weight in order to donate because you don’t want to get sick or anything.”

After the blood drive, the results were satisfactory to StuCo.

“I just really like planning the blood drive,” Chapman said, “and I like seeing people and our school do something good for the community and the world.”