HOSA hosted the school’s first blood drive of the year after school Wednesday, Oct. 16. The first-year club took over management of the drive from StuCo and collaborated with the Community Blood Center to run the event. 

HOSA, a club for students who intend to be future healthcare professionals, was well-suited to take the responsibility from StuCo. Senior HOSA co-president and co-founder Audrey Grabmeier explained how the club seized the opportunity to host a blood drive.

“We knew that StuCo held a blood drive at the beginning of the year, so we contacted Crist and asked if they had any interest in sharing it with us,” Grabmeier said. “She offered to give us the blood drive in its entirety.”

During the event, HOSA members collaborated with Community Blood Center nurses to help donors donate blood. While nurses carried out the actual process of drawing blood, HOSA members ran the registration table, handed out snacks to donors after their blood draw and gave donors water bottles and T-shirts. 

Thanks to the infrastructure put in place by StuCo and assistance from HOSA sponsor Heather Van Dyke, organizing the drive for the first time was fairly easy, according to Grabmeier. 

“It’s been pretty smooth sailing,” Grabmeier said. “A lot of administration and other teachers have been really willing to help us along the way and give us suggestions.”

After taking over for StuCo, HOSA did revamp one thing about the blood drive: its marketing. Under StuCo, the drive was traditionally advertised with posters throughout the school and emails sent to parents with information; HOSA took a more modern approach, using Instagram stories and lunchroom signups to promote the drive. 

For donor Carmen Shelly, though, it doesn’t matter who’s in charge of the drive. All that matters to Shelly, who estimates she’s missed only three or four blood drives since she started working at the school, is giving back to her community. 

“There’s a story from my childhood that I will always remember. My dad came in from doing the chores and the local hospital in our small town gave him a call him and said, ‘we need your type of blood,’“ Shelly said. “When it’s that personal, it makes an impression. Ever since then, I thought [giving blood] is something I have to do.”