About 675 lives were saved, thanks to Cherry Hill High School East’s annual blood drive last Tuesday and Wednesday, November 9th and 10th. With around 200 East students participating, the blood drive was a success once again.

The blood drive occurs two times a year and is a way for the student body to directly save lives through the donation of blood to the American Red Cross.

“[It is an] opportunity to serve our community and to help people in obvious, immediate need,” says Mr. Davis, Faculty Advisor for the blood drive.

225 units were collected this fall, surpassing last year’s units count during COVID-19, a good sign for the returning interest and involvement in the drive. However, compared to previous years before COVID-19, this year’s results and involvement were less, partly because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Spacing had to be taken into account, restricting the number of people that could be donating at one time. Before COVID-19, the blood drive was able to provide more motivating factors to entice students to participate, including complimentary food from places such as Chipotle and Chick-fil-A. This year, no outside food items were brought in since they would have to be individually wrapped, making the process much more difficult.

“We typically like to have outside food; we can’t do that right now. That’s usually an incentive for people to donate,” says Mr. Davis.

This year’s incentives included Dunkin’ Munchkins®, a t-shirt, snacks, drinks, a ten-dollar Amazon gift card, and an entry into a lottery to win a trip to Hawaii.

However, COVID-19 precautions had some benefits, such as the introduction of QR codes to sign up. These were displayed around the school and provided students with an easy way to sign up to become a donor for the drive.

The blood drive is a great and easy way to serve the community and will hopefully continue to be an East tradition for many years to come.

“How much of your time and a little bit of discomfort is worth saving someone’s life?” says Mr. Davis.