National Honor Society Organizes 4th Annual Blood Drive

By Samantha Rogala, Staff Writer

Norwood High’s National Honor Society hosted a blood drive with the Red Cross on Friday, February 28. Members of the group volunteered at the drive, keeping the event organized and handing out food to those who donated blood.

National Honor Society Adviser Ms. Newman states that this was the fourth year of working with the Red Cross. “We’ve had 39 appointments total, and then we are very much booked in the morning,” she says. “Usually we just do a paper hard copy of it, but they’re starting to implement more technology, so we had an online signup. They feel like that’s been expediting everything.”

Although the National Honor Society runs the event, Ms. Newman says plenty of other students volunteered. “This year...we try to limit donations to study periods, or gym and health, to...make it so it’s not as disruptive. And obviously students only have certain study periods so certain periods are more available, and we had non-National Honor Society students asking if they could volunteer, and I said of course...So we have an abundance of volunteers this year, which is very good.”

Along with the National Honor Society, the Red Cross worked to take donations from students. Junior Kaitlin Gillette says she donated because “it’s for a good cause,” and her phlebotomist, Diane Vargas, agreed. 

Vargas says, “I’ve been a phlebotomist for 12 years. We do [blood drives] every day.” Vargas says they work at a variety of different locations. “We do schools, we do churches, we do anybody that’ll take us.”

See Ms. Newman for details on the event in the future and opportunities to donate next year.