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November 20, 2024
Junior Emerson Jacquay at the blood drive. (Shot by Scott Schalde.)
Twice a year, MBHS holds a blood drive. The blood drive gives students a chance to give back and learn the importance of donating blood. Donating blood gives students the chance to help save a life. The age requirement to donate blood is 16, which gives high schools the perfect chance to introduce blood drives to their students. While the thought of the procedure to donate blood can be daunting to some students, others will leap at the chance and go in with as much of an open mind as they can.
The first blood drive of the year was held on Oct. 30, 2024. It was first come first serve with the sign up slots in the office, the earliest times being 9 a.m. However, when people arrived at their designated time slot, due to a number of delays, they were not placed into the donating chair until 9:47. Simple mishaps happen but as the day progressed, these wait times increased. Each student slipped out of class ten minutes before their signed up time slot in the hopes that they would be out in a timely manner to go back to their daily classes. However, from the first appointment of the day, The blood drive was running severely behind schedule.
The delays throughout the day were for a number of reasons: from equipment not being set up to students coming in to their appointments dehydrated or hungry. The night before, students were expected to have a good night's rest, drink plenty of water, and have a nice low fat meal to start their day, to provide the smoothest appointment possible. Pretty quickly it was abundantly clear that a lot of students did not follow these procedures, and therefore affecting the wait time for other students.
Junior Emerson Jacquay, donated blood for the first time on this day, along with many other people new to donating blood. When interviewed about her experience, Jacquay said, “Honestly, it went by pretty fast. Once she put the needle in I was only in the chair for about eight or nine minutes. I listened to one song through my airpods.” When asked about her wait time for assistance, Jaquay said, “I had to wait a while, about an hour and 15 minutes after what I actually signed up for, but it's okay, I understand things happen.”
Even though long delays did happen, it did not discourage students from donating. When asked if she would recommend her peers to donate blood as well, Jaquay said, “I would because even for people who are afraid of needles, it is really not that bad. It felt like getting my ears pierced, but also not.” Many students waited however long they needed to as long as they were able to donate blood and help a life whatever way they could. This year there were over 28 students signed up to donate blood, a great number for Morro Bay High School.
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