For the past two years, the Health and Education Initiative (HEI) Club has taken up the task of organizing blood drives, increasing the number of blood donations at Pine View. During the fall semester of the 2019-2020 school year, the club started running advertisement campaigns through posters and classroom presentations for quarterly blood drives that are held in cooperation with SunCoast Blood Centers (SCBC).
The vice president of the HEI Club, eleventh-grader Edward Shen, helped initiate the project.
“Before, the blood drive at Pine View had a really low turnout. I believe the average was around 10 people and most of those were teachers,” he said. “So, we talked with nurse Banco to try to improve this turnout … We had an increase from around 10 people to over 40 people donating each time at the blood drive, which was huge.”
At the start of each academic year, the club reaches out to teachers who have twelfth-graders in their classes to schedule presentations about the upcoming blood drives. Then, they provide students and faculty a link to a SignUpGenius page with time-slots to donate blood at a vehicle parked on the service road. SCBC provides the blood buses and volunteers that take blood, and it also gives information for presentations and brings donations to hospitals. According to Shen, Pine View is being considered by SCBC as a poster school to encourage other high schools to increase their efforts in hosting blood drives.
Every blood drive the HEI Club hosts is a team effort: each of the members have unique roles and responsibilities. The president, eleventh-grader Ricky Siwicki, is in charge of speaking with the coordinator of SCBC and advertising, including handing out surveys on the day of the blood drive to gauge public opinion on how to improve their presentations; Shen puts together presentation timetables, along with contacting teachers. Tenth-grader Krystal Tran is the historian, focusing her efforts on creating the PowerPoints and posters needed to get the club’s message across, while ninth-grader Shanika Farah, the treasurer, manages the financial components of funding the blood drive.
“Working together as a team is very, very important,” Farah said. “We basically have our own jobs, and we know our jobs and we help each other if we need any help.”
As a team, the club had to overcome a myriad of obstacles, one of which being the COVID-19 pandemic. There are not as many students on campus, so the blood drive bus is inaccessible to a large portion of the student body. In addition, not all teachers are willing to have in-person speakers in their classrooms.
“With COVID-19, we know that people are scared to donate blood. You’re going to be…enclosed…with other people, and you’re going to have medical [equipment] on you,” Tran said. “And it’s just, people are scared of that process, especially with COVID-19. So, as a historian, I wanted to make sure that people aren’t afraid of that process. And the way I did that was by informing people through the PowerPoint.”
Despite these challenges, the club’s continual efforts did not go to waste. According to Shen, the club’s Dec. 8 blood drive had its highest turnout, with over 40 blood donations. Those donations were crucial, especially in the midst of a pandemic.
“COVID-19 has gotten hundreds of blood drives canceled all over the world. And basically, what that means is that blood banks are at a loss,” Shen said. “The number of people who need blood isn’t decreasing, anywhere near as much as the amount of blood that’s available. So right now, during the pandemic, it’s much more imperative for Pine View to donate blood, as high schools make up a significant fraction of blood donations. And that’s another reason why we need to step up.”
With an increased need for blood, the club has emphasized the importance and impact of blood donation in their presentations.
“When somebody donates blood, that blood can be used for somebody who really needs it,” Siwicki said.