Career Academy holding blood drive on Friday

Published 6:24 pm Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Whitfield Career Academy students want the community to come give blood on Friday.

“We were trying to find out a way we could help people,” said senior law enforcement student Fatima Peinado. “For every person who donates, we save four lives. We thought that would be the best way to do a community project.”

Students throughout the school are working on several community service projects this year, organizers said. Students are partnering with Blood Assurance, the Chattanooga-based nonprofit that supplies blood and plasma to area hospitals.

Senior Maria Saldana said the blood drive will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the multipurpose room. Donors must bring a valid ID and are asked to eat a good meal before giving blood. Donors must be 17 years old, or 16 with parental consent. Everyone will receive a free T-shirt and snacks, Saldana said.

“Our goal was 100 (students), and right now we have 150, and that’s not including the people that are coming from the community,” Peinado said.

Bob Cheli, North Georgia recruiter for Blood Assurance, said a typical day-long blood drive yields about 35 units, although the numbers tend to be higher for high school drives.

Cheli said this is the first blood drive at the Career Academy. Blood Assurance hosts drives at least once a year at each of the other area high schools, he said. Most of the schools host drives through one of their student organizations overseen by a teacher.

“This is a 100 percent student-driven drive, which is very unusual for a high school,” Cheli said. “Whitfield Career Academy is doing as many units as some of my bigger schools in Fort Oglethorpe and LaFayette.”

Donating blood takes about 30 minutes.

For more information, call the school at (706) 876-3600.