Vernon Hills High School hosted a blood drive Friday and collected more than 80 units of blood from staff, residents and students within the community.
Though, while the total numbers collected were similar to gains in previous years, officials said this year’s drive was much more unique. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the various guidelines that come with it changed much of their approach this year, they said.
Elizabeth Peterson, a social worker for the school, and Deborah Beagle, the school’s director of student activities, said in a typical year, the goal of the blood drive is to introduce students to the concept of donating. This is done in hopes that they will become lifelong donors.
Both Peterson and Beagle said the drive was organized through the VHHS Student Council and National Honor Society, in partnership with Versiti Inc. They said this has been the approach in previous years, but the goal overall was changed this year.
Moving away from attempting to introduce students to donating blood, Beagle and Peterson said they focused more on having as much blood donated as possible. They said this was because first time donors can be unpredictable in terms of their donation. In many cases, a first time donor is unable to donate, be it from nerves, low iron or an inability to find a vein.
“Since we know the blood supply is low . . . we really wanted every single slot to give a donation,” Beagle said.
To help make up for this, Beagle and Peterson said they opened the donation slots up to staff and residents in the community. In total, the drive, which lasted all day Friday, collected 83 units of blood. Last year, 88 units were collected, with the year before seeing 81 units.
“We are super happy with the results,” Beagle said.
Though, first time students had a chance to donate as well. After staff and residents got the first crack at the time slots, they opened it up to students interested. By the end, they had less people attempt to donate compared to previous years, but because the bulk of donors were adults, it resulted in a similar donation total, Beagle said.
The blood drive was hosted in the school’s field house, which Beagle and Peterson said was a large space that allowed for social distancing. They added that about five people were able to donate every 15 minutes.
“The discussion came up, is this safe to do and should we do this?” Peterson said. “And the district (and officials) decided this was something for the greater good and we need to do the best we can to help.”