On November 8, 2017 at Cass High School, the HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) club hosted a blood drive for the American Red Cross.  

Cass High School helps the American Red Cross host a blood drive every year. The Red Cross sees high schools as prime places to find untainted blood and wiling participants in the blood donation process. “A lot of the blood that the Red Cross receives comes from high schools,” says Mrs. Bentley, Cass’s HOSA sponsor. When asked how many people donated, Mrs. Bentley said there were “83 Cass students and staff members donated to make a grand total of 98 units of blood.” She continued by saying, “It went smoothly, but there were a decreased number of donors.” 

Each pint of blood collected is extremely valuable to patients in need throughout the whole country.  The American Red Cross sends the blood all across the country to hospitals and to third world countries that need blood donations. They also help after natural disasters, such as hurricane Irma and Harvey.  

On the American Red Cross website, redcrossblood.org, it states that, “One donation can impact more than one person.” This means that Cass High potentially impacted more than 100 lives on Wednesday. They continue by saying, “Once every two seconds someone needs blood in the U.S.” This means that blood is an extremely valuable resource that people need in abundance.  

After it is donated, the blood then goes through four stages to get it ready to be used. The first is processing, which is when the blood is registered and logged into storage. It is then separated into the base stages of blood, the red cells, platelets, and plasma. The blood is tested to check blood type and the presence of any harmful diseases. This is to ensure safety to those that receive the blood. The next stage is storage; the blood is stored at six degrees and held for up to a year. Finally, the blood is distributed to hospitals at all times of the day every day.  

Cass High School did a wonderful thing by giving the gift of blood to those in need.