The slogan for the New York Blood Drive is ” You Care – We Care”. Last Wednesday, the students of PHS showed that they did, in fact, care, and they have been caring for a long time. According to the Student Council Adviser, Ms. Risoli, the Student Council has been organizing a semi-annual blood drive at the school for over twenty years. Last fall 67 pints of blood were collected, and Wednesday’s drive exceeded its goal of 50 pints, with a total 53 pints collected.
Ms. Risoli explained that of the 60% of the country’s population who are eligible to give blood, only 2% give. She also said that young people between the ages of 16 and 18 were the biggest donor group last year. The NY Blood Drive brochure stated that close to 2,000 people a day in our area need blood transfusions just to survive. The health professional who was was taking blood at our school assured us that the blood collected here goes to help our commuity first.
If you donated blood Wednesday, thank you for caring. If you did not have a chance to donate, we hope that you consider participating in the Spring Blood Drive. To donate blood, you must be at least 16 years old with written parental permission or 17 and older without parental permission. For more information, you can go to www.nybloodcenter.org.