NHS Blood Drive a Success!
The National Honor Society Blood Drive, held on December 2nd, was a tremendous success. A big thank you to Melissa Edwards and Alisa Humphrey and the NHS members for their hard work in organizing this event.
We received the following communication from the Community Blood Center, our partner institution for the National Honor Society Blood Drives:
Thank you for all you did to make the Franklin High School fall blood drive a resounding success. Congratulations to you and the student leaders from NHS who recruited new and repeat donors, and managed the entire process in the school.
On December 2nd, 100 appointments were created and 96 prospective student donors registered to donate blood. Of that number, 81 were able to donate a unit of whole blood successfully, 116% of the collection target of 70 units! Congratulations and thank you!
The percentage of registered donors deferred for medical and other reasons was lower than usual at only 16% of registered donors – you have a very healthy student body!
There were 57 new donors, a fantastic number! As you know, many of the new donors will continue to donate not only in high school, but throughout their lives, helping to ensure a safe blood supply for many years to come in whatever communities they settle.
It is clear from the number of repeat donors that your students believe in the program and community service in general. We saw many 3-time donor Red Cord Award winners donating their 3rd unit, and several donating their 4th unit.
Congratulations to your NHS workers and the student donors for their enthusiastic embrace of this life-saving community service event. Your students obviously understand the value of blood donation and translate that understanding into action.
Every unit of donated blood can save or improve the life of up to three patients. Up to 243 patients will benefit from your students’ generosity at CBC’s partner hospitals.
Donors will receive a call when their blood is moved to one of Community Blood Center’s 25 partner hospitals for immediate use in a patient, typically within 3 weeks of the donation date.
I encourage any graduating, college-bound senior who could use a $1,000 scholarship to consider applying for the “Lead the Way Creative Scholarship”. Community Blood Center and Vectren Corporation offer five $1,000 scholarships each year to college bound graduates. Applicants do not have to donate blood or work on the student team that hosts the blood drive to apply. A description of the program and an application can be found here: http://givingblood.org/giving-back/reward.aspx. The application is due April 20, 2017! The current T-shirt design was created by a 2015/2016 scholarship winner.
Thank you again for all that you and your students did to make your blood drive a success! Thank you for your leadership. You all have made a difference!
We are looking forward to your spring blood drive on Wednesday, March 22, 2017.
Respectfully,
Bill
