Shaler Area High School hosted a blood drive for the Vitalant blood drive company on November 21st.
While many people want to donate, they are unable to because of the specific requirements. The donor must be 110 pounds to donate and have a high iron percentage the day that they donate.
Vitalant has to always take care of the blood from the donors too, and not just the donors. If the donor is not feeling well when they show up, or are looking somewhat unhealthy the people in charge will do tests on them to grade their well being. If the person’s health grade is too low after all the tests, they will not be able to donate.
Pre COVID-19 numbers were booming, and people wanted to donate all the time. But ever since COVID-19 the numbers have gotten increasingly lower over time.
This year 78 people came to donate, and 18 of them got turned down because they did not meet the specific requirements needed to be able to donate.
“A good number to strive for would be around 100 signups and have as many of the people who signed up donate. And anything above 100 is simply excellent as long as a good percentage of those people donate,” Ms. Jackley said.
The numbers of this drive in particular were not exceptionally different from any of the numbers of drives in the past. They all seem to finish around the same number of people.
One of the biggest turning points that the organization had was when COVID-19 struck. COVID-19 is especially known world wide for being the number one thing to shut down businesses, and Vitalant got caught in the mix along with many other companies.
