Lives saved through blood drive

Green River may have lost the High School Blood Drive Challenge to Rock Springs, but they are still happy with the turnout.

Amanda Santhuff, Green River High School Student Council sponsor and language arts teacher, said Rock Springs donated a total of 256 pints, while Green River donated 245. However, more importantly, 1,500 lives can be saved with the blood donated, she said.

“Our communities are amazing, we had to split the United Blood Services staff on Thursday because of the snow day on Wednesday and we still came out with record numbers,” Santhuff said. “Green River is amazing all around, despite all the snow on Tuesday our donors still came out to bleed green.”

Santhuff said she was surprised by the results because both blood drives had to take place the same day in both communities. Because both Sweetwater County School District No. 2 and District No. 1 schools were closed, the blood drive was canceled that day. This forced the United Blood Services employees to split up between both communities.

“We had to run two blood drives in one day, rather than each school getting their own. This meant we have half the chairs and half the staff, so of course it impacted the numbers,” Santhuff said. “I will say that United Blood Services did an amazing job and they work very hard. This is by no means anyones fault, we did what we had to do to make this year happen.”

Before the winner of the friendly competition was announced, Santhuff met with the Student Council to let them know she was proud of them no matter what the results were.

“They all understand that in the end it is about the community service and the lives we save,” Santhuff said.

The rest of the school sometimes may react differently than the Student Council.

“GRHS students were bummed out, however, they know that in the end it is about saving lives,” Santhuff said. “I have really pushed for both councils to be supportive of whatever the outcome may be and they were, we do hope that we are able to keep the state trophy in Sweetwater County this year.”

Santhuff said not only do the students learn about saving lives, but they learn how it feels to participate in a community service. She said the rivalry is all in clean fun and both students and adults in the community like to be a part of it.

As for future changes, Santhuff can’t see making any.

“I do not think there is much to improve on, our council has an amazing support system and they work very hard, I honestly think that the weather had a lot to do with the outcome,” Santhuff said. “Both communities wanted to hit over 700 units combined; and we were headed there until mother nature took over.”

“We want to thank our generous community for taking time out to support us. We look forward to next year,” Santhuff said.