GRHS wins state blood drive

Every year, the high schools in Green River and Rock Springs face off in a friendly competition to see which school can donate the most pints of blood. Students and community members show up to "bleed green" or "bleed orange," showing their school allegiance and giving life-saving blood donations.

Green River and Rock Springs are not the only Wyoming high schools to host blood drives at the beginning of the year and compete to see who can donate the most.

Nine other schools throughout Wyoming participated in the challenge this year, according to Marisa DeClerqc, the supervisor of the Green River High School student council. The winner who donated the most in the state was announced during the state basketball tournament.

This year Green River not only beat Rock Springs by donating 295 pints of blood, but also beat all the other schools participating in Wyoming, making Green River the state blood drive champions.

"Rock Springs and Green River win it almost every year," DeClerqc said, explaining while the other schools in Wyoming participate in the challenge they typically don't have as big a competition as the Sweetwater County rival schools do.

The winner of the state blood drive is announced during the winning school's basketball game at the state tournament. Since the Wolves didn't make it to state this year, the winner was announced during the first game the Lady Wolves played in the tournament. A trophy was given to representatives from the GRHS student council for the blood drive win.

"Our kids were so happy," DeClerqc said, describing the reaction of the students when they received the trophy. Not many student council members were able to be at the game since it took place in Casper, but some had the chance to attend. Alicia Harrison is on the student council executive board and helps the athletic trainers, Ashlyn Santhuff is a Wolves cheerleader and Destyni German is a manager for the Lady Wolves basketball team, so they were all present at state and excited to receive the blood drive trophy on behalf of the school and the student council, which helps run the blood drive.

"It's really nice because they put a lot of work into it," DeClerqc said. "I don't think a lot of people see all the behind stuff we have to do. So it's really nice to have that trophy and reward."

The blood drive took place in January, and student council members had only a few weeks to plan, organize and try to fill the donation slots for each blood drive day, DeClerqc explained. One community blood drive was hosted at the Green River Recreation Center and one school blood drive was hosted at the high school. Each day had about 150 donation slots to fill. Most donations take one pint of blood, but a "double red" donation counts toward two. Considering these numbers, DeClerqc estimates Green River had around 250 people show up to donate blood, adding up to the total 295 points donated.

This year Green River had a better blood drive turnout than in the past two years when they had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic last year and a snowstorm on one of the donation days the year before that. The return to more normal numbers this year helped Green River pull off the blood drive win.

While the blood drive is a friendly competition each year, it's also a great chance to help people in need.

"It's awesome knowing that you're giving back," DeClerqc said. "Every pint of blood can go and help three adults or seven babies depending on how it needs to be used. So we're helping hundreds of people. It's rewarding in that sense."