One has to figure that blood drives essentially are populated by two kinds of donors: the first-timers and the veterans.

There were plenty of both at Louisburg High School on Friday, during the school’s fourth Community Blood Drive, but they all had one thing in common: Each of them was there to help save a life.

“I just wanted to do it for the first time,” LHS sophomore Summer Kircher said. “I’ve never done it before.”

“It’s just the thought of helping someone else out,” added junior David Stuteville, a second-time donor who claimed to have no fear of needles. “I’ve been getting blood drawn since I was little.”
Friday’s blood drive was the fourth such event at LHS in recent years, thanks in large part to the organizational efforts of the school’s LEOs Club; a collection of service-minded youths from all four class levels.

Despite the recent outbreak of the flu in Louisburg, which would prevent those recently afflicted by the virus from donating, LEOs Club vice president Kaitlin Wertz said the event was a success. Dozens of students and community members made their way to chairs in the LHS auxiliary gymnasium.

“I think it went pretty well,” the LHS senior said. “I think the flu might have affected it a little bit, but for the most part, we had a lot more community people, so that was exciting.”

Donations were collected by the Community Blood Center of Kansas City, a not-for-profit organization and a member of America’s Blood Centers — a network of community blood centers responsible for collecting more than half of the nation’s blood supply.

High school blood drives like the one at LHS are crucial to their work, said David Graham, Community Blood Center vice president of donor and hospital services. Not only is the response from the community extremely enthusiastic, but donors who start in high school often become donors for life.

Of the blood collected by the center annually in the Kansas City area, he said, about 13 percent will come from high school blood drives.

“It is a significant contribution,” Graham explained. “In fact, in the summertime, when there’s no school, we really notice the impact on our collections.”

For those not familiar with blood donation, the statistics surrounding the practice can be fairly staggering.

According to the CBC Web site, for example, a single donation can help as many as two patients, after blood is divided into red blood cells and plasma. Ninety-nine-percent of all blood donated remains in the Kansas City area, and since the organization opened its doors in 1958, more than 800,000 people have received blood from CBC supplies.

It’s information that can motivate local youths to donate regularly, Graham said, after they realize how easy it is to “roll up your sleeve” and make a difference.

“I tell people, ‘You’re a blood donor. You’re a life-saver,’” he said. “I think sometimes we in the business take that for granted, because we think about it all the time.”

“Even talking to my friends, we just say, ‘Wow, you donate and you save so many lives,’ ” Wertz added. “I really think that a lot of people take that into consideration when donating, too.”