The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.  The American Red Cross dates back to the Civil War when it was founded by Clara Barton, and today, this non-profit organization still effectively carries out its mission statement in everything it does, including its Blood Services.  Yorba Linda High School’s American Red Cross club had its second blood drive this year on Thursday, April 23, right here on campus, where it successfully helped the Red Cross save many lives.

According to the American Red Cross, with every two seconds that goes by, someone in the United States is in need of blood.  Thus, a total of 30 million donations are transfused each year in America.  With enormous numbers such as these, it is crucial that Samaritans are donating blood to help save the lives of others.  Each donor can save up to 3 lives in one donation.

Led by Evelyn Chan, the blood drive committee consisted of multiple Yorba Linda students that helped plan, organize, advertise, and volunteer at the blood drive.  With countless months of preparation, Evelyn Chan and Roger Fang, current co-presidents, sacrificed crucial hours of sleep to carry this blood drive out and managed their schedules around after school meetings for this event.

Every Tuesday and Thursday leading up to April 23, Roger and Evelyn would set up a blood drive table in the quad to attract students that met the donation requirements, and the blood drive committee would help them publicize and advertise.  When they weren’t advertising in the quad, they were meeting with Mrs. Runge and the American Red Cross Blood Services representative from the Orange County Chapter in regards to logistics of the event.

On the day of the blood drive, Roger got to school at 5:30 AM to help the American Red Cross Blood Services volunteers set up.  Throughout the long but rewarding day, about 67 donors came and saved lives.  Donors included countless students and even teachers and faculty members like Mr. Walls, Mrs. Shay, Mrs. Walls, and Mr. Kemp.  Each donor took time out of their day and helped save 3 lives each.  Some donors even did a double red cell donations which saves twice as many lives.

Seeing how everything went smoothly, it is easy to forget that the two leaders at the front of this event were high school students enrolled in rigorous AP courses and countless clubs, leadership positions, and after school activities.  Despite their schedules, both co-presidents took time out of their busy lives to “help alleviate human suffering” right here on our campus.