The Health Occupations Students of America or HOSA held their annual fall blood drive in association with St. Luke’s Blood Center on Friday, October 24. The blood drive brought in a total of 158 donors, all of which were students, and 19.75 gallons (158 pints) of blood. This is the first blood drive to be 100% students in HOSA history.

“The main reason HOSA sponsors the blood drive is because it gives the students a sense of community and giving up themselves,” Shellrinah Reneau, certified health science teacher, said.

Each donor received a gift from junior Tracy Cao before heading to the donation section.

“I give them a water bottle and stress ball to help them calm down,” Cao said. “I think people would be scared to donate blood.”

Senior Shrenevus “Shre” Nandam was excited to donate blood.

“I’m donating blood,” Nandam said, “to save lives.” He wasn’t at all worried, despite it being his first time to donate. “It didn’t even hurt,” Nandam said.

Nandam wanted to donate purely for life saving reasons.

“I’m the only person of my friends who did this,” Nandam said. “They said you get a cord or something, but I couldn’t care less. I’m only going to look at my cord for one day and then it’s going in the back of my closet. My dad donated a lot of blood and they’ve told him he saved a lot of lives.”

According to Red Cross, each pint of blood can save as many as three lives. Every donation counts, and HOSA cranks out donations with their semiannual blood drives. As long as you are 17 and weigh at least 110 pounds by the spring blood drive in April, you too can save lives.