Seagoville High School Makes an Impact
High school donors are a large part of the blood donor base, accounting for about 25% of all blood donations each year.
Most of these donations are collected at blood drives hosted at high schools, and one area high school has mastered the science behind running a successful blood drive in a non-traditional space.
Most high school blood drives are held in a gymnasium because it is a large space where the entire process can take place in one room from start to finish. While the basketball team at Seagoville High School will surely enjoy the benefits of some brand-new hardwood, it put the Dragons’ Nov. 10 blood drive in a tough spot.
Fortunately, the excellent JROTC program at Seagoville stepped up with a plan.
Led by Battalion Commander Natalie Wilson, S-1 Andrea Cerda and S-3 Angelina Salazar, a plan was devised to move their blood drive from the gym to a combination of the athletic field house and Carter BloodCare mobile buses.
“This is the fourth blood drive I’ve helped with,” Wilson said. “Doing it a new way than we’ve done before was hard at first. Research was definitely a big part of this. Accountability is a big thing. You never know the little things that will come up.”
Their plan was intentionally devised so that no blood donor – all SHS students – would ever be left alone or unattended.
It starts at the check-in table, where Wilson and Cerda checked in the 120 donors who signed up for the drive. Then, donors were escorted to an adjacent room where Salazar and other JROTC members made and distributed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and water to each donor. They emphasized it was important for each donor to eat and hydrate before donating.
Then, donors were escorted by JROTC members outside to the mobile buses. Other JROTC members kept constant watch on the buses and escorted donors back inside to a rest and recovery area post-donation. Salazar emphasized the importance of ensuring that no donor should ever be left alone for safety reasons.
“I’m really proud of my team,” Salazar said. “I like how we managed everything, and we have steps for every type of process, making sure people are safe, making sure we are accountable for people.”
The JROTC volunteers were responsible for recruiting the student donors and ensuring the drive ran smoothly from start to finish. This includes missing class all day to attend to the drive. What may seem like a big sacrifice was easy for these students because of their passion to help others, a core tenet of blood donation.
“We’re passionate about blood donation because we want to be very community-based,” Wilson said. We want to be able to help anybody the best way we can. And a lot of people right now are in hospitals, and they need blood.”
She mentioned it was nerve-wracking in the days leading up to the drive after seeing all 120 donation slots filled within a week of the drive sign-up becoming available, but also said the experience has pushed her to become more of a leader.
One blood donation can help three patients, meaning the efforts of Cerda, Salazar, Wilson and the rest of the Seagoville High JROTC saved up to 360 lives in one day, while ensuring each donor was properly taken care of. The massive impact means a lot to them.
“What we do here is really important to us, but I really just want to be able to help out the community,” Cerda said. “JROTC is all about helping others, so this is really important because I get to do something that is going to impact a lot of people.”
Cerda, Salazar, and Wilson all said they plan to stay involved with blood donation after high school, either by hosting drives or donating blood. Hosting a drive is one of the easiest ways to save dozens – if not hundreds – of lives at once.
If you’re inspired to host a blood drive, visit our Host a Blood Drive page to learn more.