STUCO’s blood drive is one of the largest in Wisconsin
By Mia Herdeman, Current Staff
Sometimes the best way to maximize blood donations is to shut down for 16 weeks.
West Bend High Schools’ Student Council is hosting its annual blood drive from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Dec. 14 in the WBHS south gym. Through a coordinated effort that involves Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin and local businesses, STUCO hopes that potential donors will be highly motivated to participate and a high volume of blood will be donated.
As part of the plan, STUCO has gone through the process of directing donors from other drives to the WBHS one, with an agreement that shuts down other drives for a 16-week period.
The reason for the 16-week shutdown is because it takes eight weeks for red blood cells to regenerate. Therefore, with an eight-week break before and an eight-week break after, the hospital will get a large donation of the healthiest blood possible.
This year, STUCO has pulled in workers from Versiti to help them. Versiti is based in Milwaukee, and includes basic and clinical healthcare workers. Once Versiti receives the blood, they test it for any pathogens and then deliver it to hospitals for distribution.
“If they (Versiti) do the drive eight weeks before, that means no one is on the edge of ‘I just gave blood, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it again right now,’” East junior Mackenna Steiner said.
Members of STUCO decided to condense this year’s blood drive. Hosting the blood drive is one of the biggest events for STUCO and the high schools. It generally takes 12-14 hours to set up, begin and take down the drive. To make it quicker for the Versiti workers, there will be two lines this year, one for students and one for community members. This will help STUCO meet their six-hour drive goal.
Skip Clark, East science teacher, is one of three advisers helping to organize STUCO’s drive. He has been a part of STUCO for 25 years, and out of the four subgroups (promotional, food, design, and student sign-up), he says that the promotional group of STUCO is really important.
The promotional group within STUCO helps advertise the activities among students, staff and others within the community. Steiner, for example, designed the advertising poster.
“We set up interviews to go and talk to the radios, hopefully get on TV this year,” Clark said.
After the drive, STUCO will donate the blood to local hospitals. Last year, WBHS collected enough blood to supply half of southeastern Wisconsin’s hospitals. STUCO’s goal was around 300 pints, and they exceeded it, going over 400. By encouraging students and staff who can donate, STUCO is hoping to receive 300 pints of blood this year. By doing so, WBHS will be one of the top school blood donors in the state.
This year’s theme is superheroes: “Not all superheros wear capes, but some wear band-aids.” In addition, STUCO is giving out “swag bags” to those who donate. In it, Clark says, there will hopefully be some gift cards and treats.
“After they donate they will walk out with a little gift saying ‘thank you’,” Clark said.
Many local businesses will also donate what they can. Restaurants such as Sal’s, Culver’s and many more will be there to reward donors if they do not wish to accept the “swag bags.”
Those wishing to donate may reserve an appointment via the Veritis website.
(Top image: Savannah Meyer, an East sophomore studying health care, trains to draw blood in a WBHS science classroom. Photo by Mia Herdeman, Current Staff.)
The West Bend Current 
Nice job Mia!