The first blood drive of the 2016-2017 school year was on Wednesday, November 9th, and was organized by seniors Noah Korn, Max Huberman, and Jeremy Silverman. While this blood drive was a successful one with 43 donors, 45 pints of whole blood, and 4 double red blood cell units, the blood drive committee members are expecting these numbers to increase in the next 2-3 upcoming drives, as they did last year.
The streaming of people into the commons to donate blood, and the heartwarming sights of many people filling out paperwork, waiting in chairs to donate blood, and smiling proudly as blood was drawn out of their arms, once again showed the incredible opportunities Fieldston has for students to make direct, and in this case, tangible, changes to improve and give back to the community, as well as the eagerness of the student body to take part.
“The NYC blood center has stores of only a week at a time,” Noah Korn (VI) said, “and anything we can do to bolster that supply is needed and directly translates into lives saved in the the way that other forms of community service do not.”
As pointed out by Korn and in the various signs and calls for help posted around school in the weeks leading up to the drive, giving blood is essentially giving life to those in need and who may have lost hope. The gift of blood (and life) is one of the most precious and valuable gifts that can be given, and especially considering the vast benefits, is an easy and relatively painless process, as many students recognized. Korn added, “It is harder to fill out the basic health forms than it is it deal with an IV in your arm.”
While a quick little prick and some lost blood may seem practically meaningless to you, it can literally mean the world to someone else. Fieldston has and will continue to facilitate this easily accessible and fairly effortless way to make significant change for the better. As Korn put simply, “If you are above the age of 16, donate blood.”
