Every year, Pleasant Valley hosts three blood drives through the Mississippi Valley Blood Bank during the winter and spring months. The drives encourage high schoolers to take an active role in giving back to their community.

This year, the Blood Drive was flooded with donors to an extent that the blood bank had to begin turning people away two hours after the Drive’s scheduled end. To be eligible to donate, one must be over 16 years old, weigh over 110 pounds, and be in good health on donation day.

“I think it is good to donate, because you save lives without really doing much. It’s an easy way to give back” Hope Leonard, senior, says.

The final count of the first blood drive of the year was 68 units of blood, and although some got deferred, and the blood bank had to deny entry after the lengthy wait, it still resulted in over 300 lives saved and patients assisted. Spartan Assembly enjoys hosting the blood drive every year. They collect signups, give out parental consent forms for those under 18, schedule donor times

and send out reminder cards to ensure they get an adequate amount of donors each time. This year, Spartan Assembly had a record-breaking 114 signups.

Senior member of Spartan Assembly, Emma Horsfield says, “We were thrilled to get 114 signups since our goal was only 40, we have never had this many.”

The Blood Drive is seen as an outreach event, looking to all members of the community to stop in and donate. However, there is more than one way to help. Spartan Assembly had underclassmen helping out, and those who were unable to donate serving refreshments and acting as “runners” to see if anyone needed anything, as well as running the sign in table.

The Mississippi Valley Blood Bank will be accepting donations for Pleasant Valley through Wednesday, December 13. If you are wanting to donate blood after that, the next drive will be sometime in February so look out for the next chance to donate!