172 lives were saved due to the blood drive hosted by the Wenatchee High School Health Occupations students on Sept. 23 and 24, which collected 59 pints of blood.

According to Health Occupations teacher Mitzi Southard, they collected 96 pints of blood last year. However, that doesn’t mean they did worse this year because last year the drive was held for three days instead of two.

“Knowing that we saved 172 lives is just an amazing feeling,” said senior Health Occupations student Aimee Pulido. “Knowing you can help the community in a good way makes you feel like a better person.”

The students created a signup sheet about two weeks prior to the drive. 152 people signed up to give blood. Unfortunately not all were eligible to donate.

Student volunteers advised donors to stay hydrated and arrive on time by delivering reminders attached to water bottles.

On the days of the drive volunteers walked students through pertinent medical information and took care of them after donating to make sure they were okay.

“This is preparing me to go into the health career that I want to go into, and it’s a great opportunity,” said Pulido. “We had one of the teachers from Wenatchee High School come in and tell us that if it wasn’t for us [Health Occupations] that he wouldn’t be alive today.That’s what touched my heart.”

According to the American Red Cross website, more than 44,000 blood donations are needed every day and a total of 30 million blood components are transfused each year in the United States.

Southard said sometimes the Red Cross will even send the donor a notice after someone’s life has been saved with their blood.

“I wanted to take part in helping save people’s lives,” said senior and donor Emma Lopez. “It was a great experience, it feels good giving back to the community.”

This story aired on KOHO 101.1 FM as part of The Apple Leaf’s partnership with KOHO. Click here to listen. http://www.kohoradio.com/?q=news/whs-hosts-blood-drive