Tuesday, March 5, Marshfield held their second blood drive of the 2018-2019 school year. The first blood drive is during first semester in the fall and the second blood drive is held during the second semester around spring.

Students that are 16 years of age and weighing at least 110 pounds are able to register to donate. Keep in mind that you must be in good health, which means you are able to carry out everyday activities. If you have a chronic medical condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure, you may still be eligible as long as you are receiving treatment to control your condition.

“Donating blood does so much,” said Kyla Whittaker, senior, in charge of the drive, “Each unit of blood collected has the possibility of saving 3 lives.”

This year there were 56 donors in total and a total of 43 units of blood were collected. Qualified nurses from the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks came to the high school to draw blood for the donors.

“Students to donate because their one unit of blood can make such a huge impact on people in their community, plus 30 minutes of their day can save someone’s life. I encourage everyone to find somewhere to donate in their community,” said Whittaker.

Once you donate your blood, it is first given to a lab and it is tested for any sort of diseases. After it is approved to go on, it is separated into three different parts, red blood cells, platelets and plasma. All of the different blood goes to different places and to people that need the different types of things.

The drive was going on throughout the whole day in the aux gym. Students were given donuts and water prior to their donation time.

“I donated because I know how many lives are saved by donated blood,” said Emily Whitehurst, senior donor, “It wasn’t very painful to donate and is totally worth the small pain to save lives.”