by Grace LoDolce

Every year, Joliet Central High School holds a blood drive in the East Gym.  We host these blood drives to help raise awareness in the community and in return, send the blood out to our local hospitals to help many people in the community.  Staff members from the Heartland Blood Center come to our school and ask the students and the staff to donate.  This is a very generous thing to do because by donating blood, you are saving a life.  You become an everyday hero when you donate.  It is a great way to give back to your community as well.  The amount of blood that we were hoping to raise this year at the blood drive was 100 pints of blood.  We had 196 students sign up to donate and there were 50 referrals.  This means that only 140 students were actually allowed to donate blood.  This can happen for various reasons. If you recently got a tattoo, have been out of the country or gotten a piercing you cannot donate. Many people do not donate blood because they are afraid; do not let this fear stop you.  Joliet Central students who donated blood this year said that they went into the blood drive very scared and after they donated, they realized that there was nothing to be afraid of.  If you want to help your community and save a life, you do not have to wait for the Heartland Blood Center to come back to school before you donate.  You are allowed to go to the Heartland Blood Center and donate blood all on your own.  They have an amazing staff and they are very helpful, especially if it is your first time donating and you are nervous.  They do ask that you wait at least 8 weeks before you donate blood again.  Their next blood drive will be April 30.