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.