Why would you ever let someone take a pint of your blood? Well, what you might not know is that with just one donation of blood, a person can save three lives.

The American Red Cross will be paying a visit to Wenatchee High School from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, when the organization will host its semi-annual blood drive open to high school students.

“The satisfaction of helping other people indirectly makes students feel really good about themselves,” WHS Health Occupations teacher Mitzi Southard says.

The last blood drive that WHS hosted had a turnout of 54 students, which translates to 192 lives saved. It was a two-day event that met the high school’s goal of 50 units. The year before, 75 students donated blood during a three-day event.

This year’s drive will be a three-day event, and Southard is hoping that the gym could be used instead of the Red Cross van. “There is so much more room to move around in the gym and it may even get other kids interested as they walk by,” Southard said.

As the Health Occupations teacher, Mary Zontek held the reins in organizing the drive for 23 years. According to Southard, she had developed a good reputation for blood drives in the Wenatchee Valley. Since her departure, the Health Occupations Class has done a good job organizing the event. This year, Southard and her class has set a goal to have at least 75 students donate.

Senior Gary Lumsden, who donated for his first time last year, had nothing but praise for people administering the blood drive. “The ladies involved are very nice. They paid attention to the students giving blood. They didn’t just sit back and read a book or something.”

Lumsden had a good experience donating and he plans on giving more in the future. He also wanted to recommend that “everyone give blood because there are so many less fortunate people out there that can benefit from people like us.”