If a blood donation saves up to three lives, then the Cathedral blood drive saved up to 185 lives.

On Dec. 6,  89 volunteers gathered in the WAC lobby for the blood drive hosted here at Cathedral. Donors consisted of students, faculty and staff. For any one person, there are various reasons to donate blood. As long as the donor is healthy and weighing of at least 110 pounds, they were then eligible to go through the process of giving blood. Though a pint of blood is estimated to be worth $337 on the black market, donors gave their blood for free and the payback of saving lives was priceless.

Sign-ups were sent to students Nov. 28 by German teacher Mr. Joshua Payne. Often, donors have to be 17 years old to donate blood. For this blood drive, though, if students were 16 years old wanted to donate blood, they were allowed to get a permission slip from the front office. All that was needed was a parent’s signature. Many students were involved in the blood drive through National Honor Society. Any students in NHS who came to donate received a “point” in exchange for their service.

The blood drive was sponsored by National Honor Society and employees of Indiana Blood Center.

Payne said, “To me, donating blood is an incredible gift because it saves lives. The Indiana Blood Center has seen frequent shortages of blood supplies this year. Every two seconds, someone is in need of blood. Just one pint of blood, the size of one person’s donation, can help up to three people.”