Students and teachers participated in the annual fall blood drive held in the old gym on October 31, which was sponsored by student council. Each unit of blood that was collected will save three lives.

The Blood Bank and Red Cross are the two organizations involved with Slippery Rock’s annual blood drives, according to Ms. Gallagher.

Ms. Gallagher explained that the annual Blood Drive has been going on since Mr. Whitmer served as the student council adviser back in the early 1990s, and she has been doing it, too, since she became the student council adviser. 

Ms. Gallagher believes it is important to donate during the blood drive because it is a different kind of chance to give back to others because each donation saves three lives. Schools are an easy way to collect so much blood because a lot of young kids like giving to people who need it. 

This year, thirty-six students signed up for the blood drive and twenty-seven units of blood were collected, according to Ms. Gallagher, so eighty-one patients will receive blood. Ms. Gallagher explained that this was a low turnout for SRHS than years prior. She stated, “Normally we have about thirty-eight to forty participants. A lot of students turned in permission slips, but we just did not have the time for all of them.”

Students can begin donating blood once they are 16 years old with parent permission and can also donate at ages 17 and older without parent permission. Ms. Gallagher said that “Slippery Rock does not set this requirement. It is based on the standards of the Red Cross.” 

Senior Ava Marini was one student who donated blood this year. She explained that she liked being able to give and being able to save someone’s life.