On Thursday, November 7, ERHS students and faculty participated in the fall Red Cross Blood Drive.

Many students registered to donate and, overall, the drive was a success, with more candidates for donation than the Red Cross could get through. The student s will find out if their blood will be used from a letter in the mail from Red Cross.

In an e-mail to the staff, Ms. Kathleen Deery, one of the sponsors of the blood drive, said that “Over 100 students went through the screening process, but an additional 30 children who signed up had to be turned away at the door “ due to lack of time.

Some students found out that while they wanted to donate, they were ineligible to do so according to Red Cross has guidelines, including height and weight requirements, to determine eligibility.

Senior Tania Evans said “I did not weigh enough to give blood, I thought they wouldn’t notice”. The Red Cross volunteers did notice, and sent her away.

However, that did not deter the many young men and women who met the criteria from participating.

Participants could either donate blood in the standard way or by being a “Double Red Cell Donor”.

Ms. Deery described the difference by saying that “double red cell donation is different in that during this type of donation, blood is drawn from one arm, sent to a machine which separates and collects two units of red cells, and then the remaining blood components are returned to the donor through the same arm”.

When this is done, the Red Cross gets the most red blood cells possible through the donation. This is important because, of the four components given in a regular donation (red blood cells, platelets, plasma, and white blood cells), red blood cells are the most frequently used by patients needing blood. ERHS students and faculty should be proud of the donations made to save lives.