Being poked with a needle and watching the blood leave your body can seem like a very intimidating experience, but the Red Cross Club set out to make it as easy as possible.

They held a blood drive on Oct. 31 in gym B and collected 64 pints of blood

“We had every slot filled up, which is great,” Red Cross Club supervisor Jayme Goetz said.

Putting together a blood drive took a lot of preparation and communication from the Red Cross Club, with anything from reserving the location to preparing club members to help the students donating blood.

“Students needed to double check the restrictions,” Goetz said. “Some frequently asked questions are, I’m this old, can I donate, I weigh this much, can I donate, I am sick, can I donate?”

After all of those questions are answered club members prepare students for the actual day.

“They make sure their iron levels are good, make sure they’re not hungry or thirsty and stuff like that,” Goetz said.

The event needs a lot of hands on deck to ensure that everything goes smoothly. There were four Red Cross Club officers and two junior officers that were at the blood drive all day and then three to four extra students per hour helping out.

“There are a few extra students per hour so that we can have kids to walk them back to class after they are done donating,” Goetz said.

Goetz believes that the benefits of donating blood far outweigh the cons.

“When you donate blood it has the potential to save three lives and you never know who is going to need that blood or if you yourself might need that blood someday,” Goetz said. “It only hurts for a second when they put in the needle and you only feel weak for just a little bit and we give you plenty of snacks to get you back up.”

Sophomore Kassidy Winter decided to donate blood because she wanted to help people.

“I had a pretty good experience, at first there was a long wait, but when I actually started the donating process it went by pretty fast,” Winter said.

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