“I was so scared,” Logan Trentadue, junior, said about the blood drive hosted by the Community Service class on Monday, Nov. 14. “But in the end I’m glad I did it because I wanted to help people.”

Trentadue was 1 of the 168 people to sign up for the blood drive this year. With only 15 deferrals the total came to 153 donating. “One unit of blood can help as many as three people as each unit is separated into red cells, platelets and plasma,” said Tara Frazier, donor resource consultant for the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center. “That means the units we collected at Marquette can help up to 459 people.” This is one of the best blood drives MHS has ever hosted, coming in second only to the fall of 2009 when 176 units were collected. “We were a little short of our goal of 200 sign ups,” Alex Nelle, Community Service teacher, said. “But overall I’m happy with the outcome.” For senior Abbey Greenwalt, blood drive volunteer, the blood drive was a success. “I helped sign people up and sign them in and I really enjoyed it,” Greenwalt said. “I loved helping all the people who need blood, so it made me feel really good to do what I could for the community” There were barely any deferrals this year which aided the event’s success, Nelle said. However, there were some students that still had some problems
“We had at least five students faint and one throw up,” Greenwalt said. “There were a lot of students who felt faint and sick afterward.” Allie Stein, junior, said she was one of the students who gave blood and felt sick. “After I was done my head felt light and I wanted to sleep,” Stein said. “I’m glad to give back to the community, and I would do it again, but I would recommend drinking a lot of water and resting for while afterward so you don’t feel sick.”
Despite the deferrals and few sick students, Nelle said he still counts it as a job well done. “Everyone in the Community Service class did a great job,” Nelle said. “They were the ones who did all the work and made the drive as good as it was.”