Students recently had the opportunity to take part in a blood drive through the organization Michigan Blood. 72 students contributed with a total 62 units of blood donated. All the blood will be given to hospitals in West Michigan and be used to help local communities.

“The blood that is given to Michigan Blood goes straight to local hospitals, so say you end up at Spectrum Hospital and need blood this is [what] you will be getting,”  nurse Liz Farrell said. “It stays in the community and in the state, that’s the big difference between us and other companies.”

Students that were 16 and older were allowed to participate in the blood drive. Each one of them wanted to give back to the community, some students had more personal reasons for wanting to donate.

“I wanted to donate because I was in a car accident and needed blood,” junior Katja Mestrom said. “I want to give back.”

Michigan Blood is targeting high schools because they want young people to realize that giving blood isn’t so bad.

“Less than five percent of all Americans donate blood, even though they estimate that 85 percent of all Americans will need blood sometime in their lives,” anatomy teacher Todd Diederichsen said. “So to bring this to high schools is a great way to begin getting high school kids used to the idea that its not so bad and hopefully they will become lifelong donors.”

The blood drive was a success.

“This one in particular was probably one of our very best,” Diederichsen said. “We had very few kids that didn’t feel so well, everything went very well.”