The National Honor Society (NHS) partnered with the Stanford Blood Center to host its annual fall blood drive in the school library on Oct. 28.
Stanford Blood Center Account Manager April Walsh worked closely with NHS officers to coordinate logistics, from scheduling and staff organization to managing the donor flow, she said.
“Our staff is always really prepared to be at Milpitas High School because you guys are so enthusiastic about participating in the blood drive,” Walsh said.
There was a glitch in the appointment system that they discovered partway through the morning, Walsh said. However, the blood drive still had good numbers, she added.
“The biggest difficulty is that no donors got an email reminding them of their appointments,” Walsh said. All of the donated blood goes to the local community, Walsh said.
“It is like an hour of your day, and you can save up to three lives,” she added.
The drive has become a tradition, continuing for nearly a decade, NHS treasurer and junior Akhil Dalmaraju said.
“Every semester, we’d host a blood drive,” Dalmaraju said. “We just want to help people. Our ultimate objective is to save people and get the school and students involved. There are a lot of students who are willing to donate blood to save a life.”
The library plays an important role in the event, Dalmaraju said..
“The library’s always been really helpful and supportive of our hosting the blood drive,” he said. “Even though the library is amazing, it is not the biggest room. This year, it is not as bad. But last year there was a huge rush.”
This year’s drive included around 80 donors, Dalmaraju said. NHS volunteers assisted throughout the day, guiding donors and making sure the event ran smoothly.
Among the participants was 21-year-old Harleen Sandhu, who donated blood for the first time.
“My sisters asked me to donate blood, and it is obviously really cool to a part of something that saves lives,” Sandhu said. “I think that the staff and the nurses and the snacks were great – made the process really easy and quick.”
There will be another Stanford blood drive in the spring, Walsh said.
“High school students are only allowed to donate twice a year, so every 180 days,” Walsh said. “Our goal for the spring is 120 units.”
Anyone who donates can get an excused absence, lots of snacks, as well as a 20 dollar gift card, Dalmaraju said.
“And you’re saving lives. We’ve saved hundreds, if not 1000s of lives, in the number of times we hosted this blood drive, and just come on out and donate,” Dalmaraju added.
