The final count is in.
With the help of both the Green River and Rock Springs communities, 701 pints of blood was collected with can now be used to save 2,103 adult lives. Green River edged out on top by collecting 357 pints, while Rock Springs collected 344.
Sandy Thomas, senior donor recruitment for United Blood Services, said she was just really impressed with how the communities responded to the students’ requests for help.
“It was just amazing numbers,” Thomas said. “Basically, they went over 200 pints of blood (more) than what they collected last year.”
Even though each school was given two days to collect blood for the Premier Bone and Joint 10th Annual High School Blood Drive Challenge, all of it was collected in 24 hours. Thomas said her staff only worked six hours a day during the blood collecting.
“It’s our biggest event of the year and actually the biggest in Wyoming as far as results,” she said.
For every pint of blood, three adults or seven babies can be saved, she said. For the purposes of calculating lives saved for the blood dive, the measurement is based on adult lives.
Thomas said the date of the blood drive is always picked based on when the Green River and Rock Springs basketball teams play each other.
Thomas credits the success of the event to the students for getting the word out. She said even though the dates nailed down ahead of time, they only advertise and promote the event three to four weeks in advance.
Joe Hamel, Green River High School assistant principal, said the students are very competitive and they want to help out. This is just one of the ways they can do that.
“I think the kids learned a lot about how to help others,” Hamel said.
“Being the 10th year, we have a lot of donors that just know,” Thomas said.
Some of the regular donors can’t wait to donate that day. It’s all of the excitement, the free T-shirts and knowing they are helping out their community and saving lives all at the same time.
Thomas wanted to thank the school administrators, the students, and the donors who are the real heroes of the event, for all of their support.
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