Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood for a life saving treatment – whether that is for surgery, cancer treatment or traumatic injuries according to the American Red Cross.

Saint Francis High School hosted the Red Cross for a community-wide blood drive on Wednesday, October 9th in order to help save lives and earn scholarship money for NHS seniors in the process.

    The high school hosts 3 blood drives every year in order to receive as much blood as possible and to keep giving back to the community. The SFHS blood drive provides one of the biggest supplies in Anoka County.

    “This is the 7th drive that I have helped host for NHS,” said Sharon Bergman, the director of our local NHS chapter,  “and our goal is to always get 200 pints of blood throughout the year”.

Blood cannot be manufactured and can only be received from donations states the Red Cross website. The blood the Red Cross collects at SFHS goes to help save lives in the community and give back directly to NHS students through scholarships, making the blood drives a win-win for everyone. 

“For every pint of blood donated we save 3 lives, so it’s a really great way to earn scholarship money and save lives,” said Bergman.

It may sound scary, but Jake Magnuson, a senior at SFHS, has donated twice now. 

“I feel good,” said Magnuson right after giving blood, “I like doing it, it’s a lot easier the second time”. 

NHS wants people to understand that they make a large difference by donating blood, and they may be surprised at just how easy it is. 

“Don’t be scared, it’s really not that bad,” said Magnuson. “Just drink some water and eat some food and you’ll be good to go.”

The blood drive is also a great way to get out and be involved in order to make a large difference in the lives of others. 

“I like to do the blood drive every year because it’s good to help people,” said Mark Thul, a language arts teacher at the high school, “and we’re a community, we gotta look out for each other.”