Torrance High students made generous donations on October 30th, donating 94 pints of blood, beating ASB’s goal of 85 pints! Students donated their blood during UCLA’s Health’s blood drive that took place, here, at Torrance High’s small gym. Alessandra Armendariz, the Vice President of ASB, was the main coordinator in this collaboration with UCLA Health.
Let’s dive into what it was like to donate blood!
ASB members Alessandra Armendariz and Rachel Wong ran the front table in the small gym’s lobby. They explained that “you save three lives if you donate.” This was a big reason why students like Lena Chung chose to donate. Lena expressed how she “hates needles but we’re saving lives, so we’re doing it for the good of everybody.” But just showing up without any preparation can be a bit dangerous as they could be at risk of fainting without proper eating. Lena made sure she drank lots of water before and had an “iron-filled dinner.” Unfortunately for Miguel Reyez, he had not eaten beforehand and passed out, but overall he mentions his time there as “good,” “great,” and “pretty quick.” Even though Alessandra had this big task of coordinating this event she later expressed she “had all of asb by my side so that helped a lot.” She did her part and made sure everyone was on task with their jobs and replaced ASB members who were working with others when they needed a break.
But even before donating blood students had to sign up with an ASB member to register themselves in the drive days beforehand, then they chose a period they wanted to be excused from and got a call slip in the days coming up to the drive. To make this all possible ASB members were all required to get at least 5 sign-ups from students by October 23rd. And on the 30th ASB came an hour early to the gym and set up. From 8:30 to 1:45 students left immediately for the blood drive with their call slips because most teachers knew that students would be absent to donate blood. Once arriving at the gym, donatars were greeted by ASB members who marked their attendance. Afterward, they were allowed into the gym where they saw UCLA nurses, beds, medical equipment, and more. The students had to fill out a form about their medical history before they went to a nurse’s station where they got their finger pricked to test for things like hemoglobin in the blood. Then after they waited their turn, they got their blood drawn. The time varied from 8 minutes to up to an hour for some. Lastly, they finally enjoyed snacks provided like Gatorade, Doritos, cookies, and more. However, students were required by California law to spend 15 minutes after donation at the makeshift canteen in the corner of the gym. AMC Black tickets were awarded to students who donated, which meant they could get a one-time free admission to any movie they wanted.
Thank you to all the students who took time out of their day to donate their blood to help others!
