On Friday, January 25th, Lincoln had its annual Blood Drive to save those in need of blood. It was held in the Small Gym and it took place between 8am-2pm.  There were a few rules that you had to follow if you were donating blood. These were the rules:

• You needed to make sure that you didn’t skip any meals for two weeks prior and to eat breakfast and lunch the day of.
• You must be sixteen or older in order to register to donate.
• Must have a wavier submitted to Ms.Thai in Room C.
• You were required to pre-register.
• No physical activities for twenty-four hours after.
• MUST have a valid ID.
• No new piercing/tattoos in the last year.

There were about ninety-nine appointments made for this day. On the day of the blood drive, we collected a total of seventy-three units from ninety-two registered donors. They had to turn away twenty-one student donors because they didn’t follow the requirements that applied.

Most of the people who weren’t allowed to donate were people who had low iron or some didn’t meet minimum weight. Lincoln was able to reach ninety-seven percent  of their goal!

The doctors saw about forty-six first time donors and collected forty-five Type “O” donors. Stanford Blood Center had a low number of Type “O” going into the weekend and this blood drive that Lincoln hosted put Stanford Blood Center in the “Normal” level.

According to Ms.Thai, “Lincoln has been hosting this event for about twelve years. A community service group hosted this event to help the community. I definitely think that this is a great opportunity for someone to get themselves involved with donating blood because after the holidays, people tend to get sick and sometimes hospitals don’t have enough blood during this time of the year. It happens to be the lowest number of blood collections and I want us to be able to raise that number up so that there’s enough blood donations.”

Stanford Blood Center couldn’t thank us enough for everyone that donated or helped out!

Many students thought that this experience was something that everyone should try at least once in their life. Donating one pint of blood can save three lives! Hospitals are also glad that people are donating from Lincoln High School!

That’s why its a great idea to sign up and follow the instructions so you can donate to help those in need in the next blood drive. If you are donating, make sure to tell your friends to donate too! Help show the community that Lincoln cares.