GREENLEAF — The Red Cross set up in the Greenleaf Friends Academy cafeteria, drawing blood from donors as the student organizers chatted among themselves.
Hosted in the school’s cafeteria on Thursday, the students organized a day-long blood drive, motivated to contribute to their community.
Lidia Ovalle, student president of the Spenser House, took on the blood drive as one of her final community projects before graduation. The Spenser House is one of four houses students at Greenleaf Academy are split into.
Ovalle’s engagement with the project began solely as an organizer, due to her fear of needles. While she didn’t intend on donating blood, she worked with her classmates to set up a framework and connect with the Red Cross to make the drive happen.
“Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to (donate), I was going to be the connection to do it,” Ovalle said.
Teacher Sandi Francis is the Spenser House advisor and has watched the students put the blood drive together, leading with courage despite fears of needles and blood.
As a Christian school, Francis said everything they teach their students encourages community service. She hopes to continue the drive as a biannual event.
“We should be bringing this to more schools,” Francis said.
By the end of the day, 31 donors participated in the Greenleaf drive.
As house president, Ovalle has organized events before, but none that felt this high-stakes.
“It has been a learning experience,” Ovalle said.
Ovalle said part of the motivation behind hosting the drive came from learning about the national blood shortage. According to the Red Cross, the nation is seeing its lowest blood supply in 20 years.
Account Manager David Barnhart has helped organize hundreds of drives in his two years working for the Red Cross. Depending on patient need, he oversees up to 30 drives a month.
The Red Cross partners with 35 of Idaho’s large hospitals, according to Barnhart.
He recalled speaking with a doctor at Caldwell’s West Valley Medical Center about the ongoing shortage last fall. The doctor recounted the time a child was transferred under their care from a smaller facility following an accident.
While West Valley had more resources than the smaller facility, the hospital still did not have enough blood for the child, who ended up passing under the doctor’s care.
This story rocked Barnhart’s perspective.
“Both my girls were born in that hospital,” Barnhart said about his 10-year-old and 4-year-old daughters. “This is very close to home.”
Senior Preston Branson sat in the cafeteria with his leg bouncing up and down, nervously awaiting his turn. This was Branson’s first time donating blood.
“In all honesty, yes, this will be very terrifying at first,” he said. “(But) as soon as you get into it, you’ll eventually ease up.”
With the ongoing project by the Spenser House, Branson was convinced to be a donor. His mother has worked as a nurse assistant and donates blood consistently, instilling the importance of donating.
“We have existing blood donors, and then we’re naturally always looking to educate and inspire others to become donors, ” Barnhart said.
Barnhart said an older generation grew up with blood donations being a part of life, as important as learning to change a tire. But, this population is aging.
“We can’t just keep beating down the existing donor pool,” Barnhart said. “We need new donors to have that lightbulb moment.”
Unlike other products, blood has yet to be replaced by a synthetic version and can only be sourced from donations. Blood has a shelf life of 42 days, according to the Red Cross, leaving a demand for consistent donations.
For Barnhart, the largest challenge in getting more donors has been changing people’s perspectives.
“Effectively, we get a lot of folks that’ll say, ‘You guys are the Red Cross, don’t you always need blood?’” he said.
To come to an understanding, Barnham compares needing blood to owning a car. As a driver, he said imagine pulling up to a gas station with a warning light flashing — the tank is empty. The issue is, the pump is also out of fuel.
“When it comes to blood, that is happening right now,” Barnhart said. “It’s flashing in everybody’s faces right now.”
For those who missed Thursday’s drive, the Red Cross consistently holds blood drives across the Treasure Valley on a near-daily basis. Nearby blood drives can be found at redcrossblood.org by zip code.
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