The students at Paul Kane High School have won bragging rights as the high schoolers with the most blood donations in the metropolitan Edmonton area, and they’re making a bloody habit of it.
Sheyanne Levall, community development co-ordinator with the Edmonton branch of Canadian Blood Services, confirmed the win and gave them high praise.
“This is the second year in a row that Paul Kane has won the Young Blood for Life,” she said. “Paul Kane has always been really supportive and when they had the opportunity to come on board again this year, they very much jumped on board again as soon as they could.”
In total, the school brought in 65 units of blood, two more than its contribution last year. William Aberhart High School in Calgary was the province-wide winner with 243 donations. The total for the country was 18,339 units donated.
These figures helped Canadian Blood Services to beat its targets by 154 per cent for blood collections and by 127 per cent for new donors.
The announcement came last Friday at the end of National Blood Donor Week. The challenge ran from Sept. 15 to May 31.
Young Blood for Life is a challenge led by the students themselves. Its intent is to not just get new donations, but also to instill a sense of duty in the students. According to a recent survey conducted by the blood agency, people aged 66 to 70 donate blood nearly twice as often as youths 17 to 19 years old, but almost half of first time donors are 17 to 24.
Canadian Blood Services says that new blood is necessary for the survival of the system.
“It’s exciting to see youth across the country making such a significant contribution to Canada’s blood system especially knowing that this year Canadian Blood Services needs to recruit more than 89,000 new donors – 14,000 just in Alberta – to keep pace with the growing demand for blood and blood products across Canada,” said Sue Blasutti, executive director of donor and clinic services.
“Young Blood for Life contributes greatly towards meeting that goal.”
Levall added that approximately 15,000 donations must be made in the Edmonton area between June and August alone just to meet the anticipated need throughout the months of June, July and August.
Each donation can save up to three lives.
“It makes our job much easier when we have advocates within the school working on the blood donor program. We’re consistently looking for new donors. When we have the opportunity to work with high school students and they can see the need first hand of the importance of becoming a regular blood donor, it’s a huge success for us.”
She says it’s a huge challenge to get new donors to give three units of blood. That’s the benchmark where Canadian Blood Services considers the person to be a regular donor.
People must be at least 17 to give blood, and donations can be made every eight weeks.
As an added incentive to young donors, the agency offers a program called Assignment Saving Lives. It provides academic bursaries to students who recruit 20 donors, including five first-timers, between June 1 and Sept. 3.
Call 1-888-2-DONATE (236-6283) or visit www.blood.ca for more information or to book an appointment.
