Shortened Blood Drive Still Saves Lives

December 20, 2021

On December 10, Cretin-Derham Hall student council held one of its biannual blood drives. Due to a winter storm, school was shortened to a half-day last minute, so they had to cut the blood drive short. However, 68 people still donated, helping to save the lives of people they may never meet.

Kate Sticha '22 and Allie Sowatzka '22 co-chaired the Blood Drive.

"I wanted to be part of the preparation and put all of my effort into making the most of the drive," Sticha said. "My dream one day is to be a doctor, so the way I look at it is that right now I am unable to save lives in the hospital, so something I can do to save someone’s life is to encourage others to donate blood."

Blood has been in short supply since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so even a half-day blood drive makes a major difference for Memorial Blood Centers.

"Memorial Blood Drive is running on less than a 24 hour supply of blood so they told us even if they could only get two hours of donations that would be worth it," said Sticha.

CDH students, faculty, and staff take great pride in making a positive impact, and donating blood is a relatively easy way to make a significant impact.

"I have donated before and was excited for the opportunity to donate again when I saw CDH was having another blood drive," said Nora Perrault '22. "The nurses were so nice and I felt so supported by the student volunteers talking to me during the donation and making sure I was okay. It was a great experience and I will definitely continue to donate and volunteer!”