Last Thursday, lines formed outside of the South Gym with students eager to donate blood and help save lives. Every year, York Student Council puts on three blood drives: one in October, one in January, and the last in April.

The fall blood drive had unprecedented success. With it being the first blood drive of the year, Student Council was hopeful to get 70 pints of blood. The community was surprised that their expectations were exceeded and ended up with 86 pints of blood in total.

While it may seem like you are just sitting in a chair giving blood, you are really doing so much more. The blood that was donated at this blood drive has the potential to save 238 lives.

“My grandma was sick when I was little and she used to have to get blood transfusions all the time, so it’s really easy to sign my family up because people donating blood helped her; it’s our way of giving back to the people who need it,” said Meghan Ferreri, sophomore Student Council member. “I think [the blood drive] is an important thing to do because it gets the students involved and it is a nice thing to do.”

Despite the overwhelming number of volunteers that planned to give blood, some potential donors had to be turned away due to iron deficiencies. To combat this in the future, Student Council is contemplating giving each donor a small snack before they donate.

Given the success of this blood drive, Student Council has set an ambitious goal of 140 pints for the January blood drive.

When seeing Student Council members coming around for the blood drive next January, don’t hesitate to sign up. You will be glad that you did it, and the people’s lives who you save will be grateful as well.

“It could be you that gets hit by a bus or something and needs a blood transfusion,” said Alexis Hohman, senior Student Council member.