Riley Mullgardt
Entertainment Editor
National Honors Society hosted its annual blood drive for patients at Mercy Hospital on Monday Nov. 14.
The drive was organized by the students, and NHS sponsor Amy Rowland said the students assisted the Mercy Hospital staff by “working the registration table, keeping students company in the donation room and handing out snacks after the students donate.”
Walking into the gym, students found on the left side a registration booth and behind were screening stations. To the right of the entrance was a table filled with snacks and beyond that, the donation station. To qualify to give blood, participants had to be interviewed by a Mercy Hospital nurse who asked questions about their health, their diet and pricked their finger to test their blood.
Senior Jada Jackson said, “I didn’t know they pricked your finger… That kind of hurt,” and then she laughed.
The full process, registration to the required snack break, took about an hour, but the actual giving blood process only took about 10 minutes. The nurse pokes the patient’s the arm to find the vein and then sticks the needle in.
Jackson said, “It feels kind of funny.”
Junior Ethan Rio’s thoughts while eating a bag of pretzels were, “That wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
Mercy Hospital’s website says the blood people donate goes to “help trauma patients, cancer patients, new moms or other patients fighting any number of illnesses.”
Student Council hosts another blood drive on Feb. 23.
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