Tag Archives: Claire Gapsis

Students give blood in annual Red Cross blood drive

By Claire Gapsis

When one thinks of a blood drive one might think of long needles and people fainting everywhere. The truth, though, is far from that. People often feel nerves, even the people who donate blood often, but it is natural to feel nervous. Ones life source is flowing into a plastic bag.

Monday, March 5, FC students of 17 years of age and older gave blood as members of the National Honor Society watched over them.

Seniors Haley Dresner and Kate Kaiser are two NHS members who sat at the snack table, waiting for donors to be done so they could hand out drinks and snacks. It was both of their first time helping out at a blood drive. They agreed that they volunteered to help the community out, which coincided with gaining a few community service hours.

Senior Rachel Engle was sitting across from Dresner and Kaiser and had just given blood. It was her first time giving blood and while she had been nervous she was glad she did it. She said, “I gave blood because I feel it’s a need and I wanted to help out the community.”

There were other volunteers waiting around to help donors from the beds where one donates the blood to the snack table. One volunteer waiting to help was senior Catt Eicher. “I feel the energy of the room is relaxed. There are volunteers here who are friends with people on the tables and that helps calm them [the donors] down,” she said.

Eicher rebutted the idea that people often faint, she had not seen a single person faint since the blood drive started at 10. The nurses were doing their job in making sure that no one who was not fit to give blood ended up on the table.

One nurse that was checking to make sure the donors were able to give blood was Marcy. She had been a nurse for five years and often worked blood drives. “Fainting is always the most serious thing that happens but it doesn’t happen often.” She explained. Since the weight requirement went up less people have fainted at blood drives. She believes that blood drives at schools are good ideas because the students are the future donors and need to know that blood is needed.

Another nurse that was present was Nathan. He had only been a nurse for four weeks but he had been in health care services for a few years before he became a nurse. He said, ”We’re supposed to keep the donors down, lead them to the waiting area to collect themselves if necessary.” If the donors could not calm themselves down then they were deferred.

Senior Zak Wright was giving blood for his fourth time and did not feel the tiniest bit nervous. Perhaps it was because of the music in the background to give the donors something to try to focus on or just being friendly to the nurse who hooked him up. “To me it feels fantastic, just a little draining.” he laughed.

Blood drives are not scary and giving blood might drain one a bit but it is always for a good cause. If one ever finds themselves nervous or slightly scared focus on something else- ones breathing, music in the background, people talking, or find someone else to talk to. There is much going on a blood drives but fainting is not one of them.


Columnist holds beliefs of accepting others for their differences

By: Claire Gapsis

Growing up I have attended a Unitarian church. The basic idea of Unitarians is to create your own belief and ideas, accept people and their beliefs, and to respect everything. As I progressed through the religious education classes I learned about world religions and the stories of the bible. Once a month the church would come together as a whole and have a Celebration of Life service; sometimes taking form of a Day of the Dead service. For Christmas we would light all the candles on the Menorah, sing holiday songs, carry out a Yule Log and have a moment of silence in a darkened sanctuary that was lit by everyone’s candle. Sounds accepting, loving, and just fabulous, right? It was! I felt I was living the life; I was not being told how to believe or what to believe in.

Things changed, though; in seventh and eighth grade the kids enter a program called Coming of Age that helps us identify our beliefs. I had a hard time because growing up in such an open environment I had no input or direction for what I should believe in. That was the point, though, to figure out what I believed in. It was just too hard for me to pinpoint what exactly pushed me forward and woke me up everyday; what I looked to in my troubling times. In the end I just slapped different religions together – mostly Buddhism and what now seems to be Native American beliefs.

What changed me, though, was not the struggle or the self-reflection but the acceptance my church gave me, embracing my ideas and loving me even more for them. This is when a new belief fell into place. Variety and individualism are beautiful and necessary. It also is not limited to religion but includes the people I meet and my every day happenings. I search for the differences in people and learn to love them for the beauty their difference gives them. People often say uniqueness is good but they hardly ever look at it and say, ‘This is beautiful.’

Everyday I find something different and say to myself, ‘I accept this unconventional beauty.’  This, I believe.