In hosting their bi-annual blood drive through the trusted Red Cross this past April, NHS urged Wildcats to come to the small gym and donate their blood. Snacks and drinks to aided their recovery after making such a generous, life-saving donation.

Sadie Birdsell, media specialists and NHS sponsor, noted the two-fold benefit of a high school blood drive.

“We do the blood drive twice a year because the Community Blood Center helps hospitals all over the KC area and it’s really important to keep the blood supply up,” Birdsell explained. “It’s really good for students in our school to serve our community,” Birdsell noted.

Over 140 students and staff donated blood. Senior Mohamed Ayman, NHS president, was well versed in the hard work it took to set up the drive.

“We have to start setting up around seven in the morning and work until the end of the day at about 2:15. To prepare for the blood drive, we start working with WCTV, but also draw and hang posters a month in advance,” Ayman said.

The first semester blood drive suffered a cancelation because of a snow day, so NHS had to handle the rescheduling, which proved to be a challenge.

“Many nurses and many medical materials are involved so it wasn’t easy to reschedule it to the next week or so,” Ayman added.

Although NHS did their best to spread the word about the rescheduled blood drive, they unfortunately did not have as many donors as they did the first time-due to having to re-register in order to donate again.

“Giving blood is a way to demonstrate empathy towards others, and especially in this case, since you cannot predict when an accident will happen,” Ayman finished.