Leesville will hold the second blood drive of the 2011-2012 school year on Wednesday, March 7. Blood drive coordinators predict it will be the largest drive in school history.
Mr. Ross, Spanish teacher and blood drive coordinator, estimates that 130 units of blood will be donated which means that around 160 individuals need to show up due to the fact that some individuals will be turned down.
To make the blood drive successful, a larger student participation is needed. With around 1,300 students eligible to donate this should not be a difficult to achieve.
In regards to student participation in the blood drive, Julian Taylor, junior, asked, “If we have over 2,000 students at Leesville, why is it so hard to meet the goal for the blood drive?”
Ross explains that this years blood drive has a new element. “Three student coordinators have been competitively selected and are responsible for raising publicity and growing the blood drive,” said Ross.
Katie Arney, one of three student coordinators, said, “The goal of the blood drive is to get 130 students to donate, but the real goal is to save lives. My job is to get the word out.” She believes that publicity is the key to success.
In order to make the blood drive as successful as possible, the student coordinators have made an event on Facebook.com in hopes that more students will hear and be interested in donating blood.
In addition to the new student coordinators, 26 student ambassadors have been selected by Mr. Broer, Mr. Ross and Mrs. Eastman. These ambassadors are expected to stand up in each of their classes and promote the blood drive. Hopefully, students will be more receptive if one of their peers advocates for the blood drive rather than a teacher or administrator.
