With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, some students will have less blood pumping through their hearts this February 14th. The Central Jersey Blood Center held their regular blood drive at MHSN on Wednesday, January 29th in the Bubble all-throughout the day in order to refuel their stock with more transfusable blood products.
The cold January weather did not daunt students away from making the short walk from the building to the Bubble passing the CJBC’s truck and piles of pure white snow after the blood drive was put off from the original date of January 22nd due to the bad weather.
“Some people can do it, and it’s nice of them to do it,” said Jesse Scala, junior, after his first experience donating blood, “but I’m not one of them.” Scala said that he was glad that he tried the experience but that he does not think he would try it again.
Prior to donating blood, students went through a process including multiple health questions and a mini-physical that included their blood pressure, temperature, pulse and hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body.
“It was fun; time passed by very quickly,” said Trisha Quan, junior, who volunteered at the event, “it was for a good cause and it saved a life.” With the average donation being approximately one pint of blood, Quan estimates that anywhere from 60-70 pints of blood was donated during the blood drive. According to the American Red Cross, the average adult has 10 pints of blood of their body and that the typical donation could help up to three people.
The next blood drive will be held in approximately two months in order to give students eight weeks so that their blood supplies can replenish. As for now, students are just trying to take school one day at a time.
