GONZALES — Approximately 50 Gonzales High School students and adults gave blood during the annual blood drive on Nov. 15 at Gonzales High School.
“We have been doing the blood drive since 2011 and it’s just kept going smoothly,” said Diana Castro, ASB president and coordinator of the blood drive. “It helps save lives.”
The blood drive had walk-in donors, with the requirement of the donors being at least 16 years old to give blood. According to Castro, most of the donors not from the high school made appointments online, and the students signed up with her to be blood donors.
After giving blood, the donors received one juice either orange or cranberry to drink completely, half of their water, and ate a snack before returning to class or work or going on with their day. The donors also had to stay in the gym for 15 minutes after their blood donation to ensure that if any emergency situation happened, the donor was in the area where professionals could respond to the situation.
Leading the blood drive was the ASB leaders who helped students to the different stations and then back to their classroom. Drawing the blood was the American Red Cross. During the blood drive, there was about four first-time donors as well as many returning donors.
Gonzales High School has two blood drives each year at the high school as the community service project for ASB members.
The second blood drive will be in March. The school also participates in the Relay for Life in Salinas in May and face paints at the Christmas tree lighting on Dec. 3 as well as the games during the day.
