LT Student Council hosted a blood drive in the NC Vaughan Gym on March 14. Partnering with Versiti—a blood center located in Aurora, Ill.—the drive achieved a preliminary count of 54 blood products: a decline since the November drive. 

“Oftentimes kids our age—including myself—feel powerless as we see all the chaos going on in the world,” Student Council Outreach leader Keira Connelly ‘25 said. “It feels great to know that what we’re doing is saving lives.”

By coordinating the drive through Versiti, LT participates in their scholarship program, “Leaders for Life,” which scales up based on the number of blood products collected the previous year. Grants range from $250 to $5,000 with all proceeds contributed to LT’s General Scholarship Fund to support student applicants in their senior year pursuing post-secondary education. In the fall, 78 blood products were collected: translating to 234 lives saved and the lowest payout tier.

“‘Leaders for Life’ jumpstarts high-schoolers into donating blood with simplistic science lessons about blood, its parts, and how it helps patients,” Versiti Account Representative Lawrence Smith said. “It promotes and teaches soft skills such as team-building, delegating, [and] public speaking for the greater good of patients, while earning funds for the school based on the blood collected.”

Smith manages Versiti’s 25 to 30 monthly local drives to ensure there is blood for patients at over 80 hospitals in the Chicagoland and NW Indiana area. For more than 10 years, LT has hosted biannual blood drives through Student Council in the fall and the spring. Twice, Versiti recognized LT for having the largest school-based drive.

“Our biggest challenge is always getting students to sign up,” Student Council sponsor Peter Geddeis said. “We have to calm the fear of needles, screening limitations [such as] height [or] weight minimums, and schedule challenges.”

From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the blood drive was open to NC students, faculty, and community members. While signed up students received an allotted time slot during the day, faculty and community members could donate at any time. 

“The primary goal of the drive [was] to collect as much blood as possible, thus saving hundreds of lives,” Geddeis said. “Our secondary goal [was] to create lifelong donors who will continue to donate for years to come. The blood drive predates my arrival at LT, but it was something I was thrilled to continue, as I was a longtime blood donor. It was a habit that I picked up from my mom, who has donated blood for decades.”

Upon arrival, potential donors underwent a screening to discuss health related factors that may impact their ability to donate blood, Connelly said. These factors included fever, medications, iron levels, etc. If they passed, they proceeded to donate. Then, after a brief observation period, students were sent back to class. In total, the entire process took around 30 minutes. 

“There are many instances when someone may need blood, such as when they are victims of car crashes or trauma and need surgery or when they are undergoing a medical procedure for illnesses like leukemia or kidney disease,” Connelly said. “Donating blood helps save lives, and that is what we aim to accomplish by hosting the blood drive.”

Facilitating the drive was a role that fell on Student Council volunteers, Connelly said. Prior to the drive, volunteers helped recruit students to donate during lunch periods. During the drive, however, volunteers possessed a wide variety of jobs ranging from checking in donors, monitoring students before they progressed to the health screening, and supervising recovery stations.

“I am participating in the blood drive because I know that this event makes a huge impact on those around me, and it couldn’t be done without student volunteers like myself and the advisors putting in the work to make it happen,” Connelly said. “There is a lot more awareness about the blood drive among the student body, and I believe that we were able to get a lot more volunteers because of it.”

Assistant Student Council sponsor Julie Riederer felt similarly. Though it was only her second blood drive at LT, her role was to help coordinate the day-of logistics for the drive. This included everything from check-in to making sure that donors were recovering fine.

“My favorite part about organizing the blood drive is getting to see so many students, staff, and community members give back in such a positive and meaningful way,” Rierderer said.

Beyond recruitment during lunch, students could also sign up for the drive by visiting a table set up by Student Council in the NC Fieldhouse lobby or through a link sent to all students via email. 

“It was a very easy and straightforward process,” donor Suzy Avakian ‘26 said. “The people running it made it not scary.”