On Friday October 21st, Jackson-Milton held their annual blood drive throughout the day. Leading the way, Miss Amendolara and the student council members recruited many students and parents to donate their blood to the Red Cross.

Red Cross has been visiting Jackson-Milton for many years now because they get a lot of volunteers to sign up for it. Miss Amendolara and the student council work hard setting the blood drive up and helping the patients get comfortable to get ready to give blood. The student council members are also the comforters for the patients while they are giving blood to keep them calm.

There are usually two different blood drive dates throughout the school year when the Red Cross comes. Despite the football players not being able to donate because of their game later on that night, Miss Amendolara was still very proud of the turnout. Many of the football players are loyal and usual donors but were not able to donate during this particular event. Football players John Voland, Mikey Spencer, and Noah Laster helped Miss Amendolara a great deal by recruiting the Jackson-Milton alumni and parents to sign up and donate blood.

There is also a new rule that the Red Cross had made considering their need for blood. This rule is not having to wait as long as you did before after getting a tattoo, so some donors who originally said that they couldn’t because of their tattoos were allowed to donate.

One reason for this high need for blood donations is due to Hurricane Matthew happening in the south.

There is also another new invention that Red Cross created to make the process go faster. This invention was put on their website and is called rapid pass. Rapid pass is used so donors that have an appointment to donate will not have to go through the whole question process, they can do it at home before they come so they will be able to donate and leave.

The Jackson-Milton blood drive can be a stressful process but it is well worth the lives that are saved.