(Left) Two American Red Cross volunteers Marie Brezosky and John Moore. (Right) Paul Lange, Justin DeGreenia, Audrey Pennington, and Tom Drew, the American Red Cross Volunteer "Committee".
On Monday May fifth,1997, a small group of eighth graders from Rundlett Junior High School in Concord, New Hampshire met with American Red Cross volunteer, Marie Brezosky. Marie , who has been volunteering at the American Red Cross for six years, took time from her day to show us the process of donating blood. We ended up learning more than we thought we would. During the time that we were there, Marie took us through each step and explained it in a way that we could understand.
(Left) This is station number two. At this station your vital signs are taken. (Right) This is a RJHS teacher, John West, at station number two.
You may think that the process of giving blood is very complicated, but in all actuality the whole process takes about one hour. The part of the process that frightens people the most is the injection of the needle into your vein. The injection only takes about three seconds, and the needle is only in for about six to ten minutes. Before any of this happens there are three important steps you must go through. The first is the registration. At the second step your temperature and blood pressure is taken, and your weight is registered. The third step is the most personal. They were not allowed to tell us what questions were being asked, but we do know that they were about your health. Once they have taken one pint of blood, a volunteer carries the bag to a table where the blood bag is weighed and examined thoroughly.
(Left) Mathew Pappas, a RJHS teacher, actually donating blood. (Right) This is the weighing station. Here the blood is weighed to be sure there is really a pint.
The American Red Cross blood services started during World War II. In 1948, the New England Region was founded. The Red Cross collects roughly six million pints of blood per year, which provides for about half of the nation's blood supply. The Red Cross Blood Services supply 185 hospitals within Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The Red Cross only collects from voluntary donors.