Student Council hosted their annual blood drive of the year last Wednesday. A few precautions were made in order to follow proper COVID-19 safety measures.

“The blood drive was similar to last year,” junior Ashi Wickramasundara, ”but tables were socially distanced and volunteers couldn’t assist donors as much.”

Donating blood happened to be a slow process. After checking in, Red Cross nurses asked students questions about their medical history to reassure that they could donate blood. The next step of the process was checking the hemoglobin levels of each student. If hemoglobin levels are low — also known as iron deficiency — the student can’t donate blood due to the possibility of passing out.

“The Red Cross nurses asked me a bunch of medical questions and pricked my finger so they could test my iron levels,” sophomore blood drive chair Ava Reese said. “After that, I went to the cot where they set me up to start donating. My friend, Grace, held my hand as they put the needle into my vein and then I was hooked up for about 10 minutes.”

This year, 66 people signed up. However, because there were students who were turned down to date blood, there were only 43 viable donations.

After donating blood, it’s common to feel dreary or sore afterwards. 

“After I donated, I was pretty tired and I felt faint for about 10 minutes and then after that it wore off,” Reese said.

“My vision went blurry towards the end, so I felt a little faint,” Wickramasundara said.

The week prior to the blood drive, StuCo officers volunteered during lunch to set up a booth in the West Campus cafeteria. Along with that, StuCo officers also gave out water bottles to every donor last Monday and helped on the actual day of the drive.

“As the sophomore blood drive chair this year, I worked with the rest of the blood drive committee to get people signed up the week before the drive,” Reese said. “On the Monday before, we passed out water bottles to all the donors. Grace Bannister, the other sophomore blood drive chair, volunteered all day with me on the day of the blood drive checking all the donors in.”

Donating blood may be a long process. However, the donors would do it again if it meant saving at least one life.

“People are in need of blood,” Wickramasundara said, ”and if I’m in a position to help, I feel like it’s a given that I do so.”