T-L File Photo Barnesville resident Joe Stenger donates blood during Barnesville High School’s Blood Bash in 2018.

BARNESVILLE — Barnesville High School officials are working to plan the annual Blood Bash, a blood drive that helps support local hospitals.

During the Barnesville Exempted Village School District Board of Education meeting last week, high school Principal Ron Clark informed board members he will be meeting with event partner Vitalant later this month to discuss the details of this year’s blood drive.

“We’re going to meet and come up with some of the particulars for the Blood Bash. It’s usually the first Friday in May,” he said.

A time and date for this year’s event has not yet been set but will be announced once the partners have had a chance to determine what will work best.

Vitalant, formerly known as Central Blood Bank, is a nonprofit organization that assists the school with blood collections from volunteer donors.

This will be the school’s 38th blood drive.

It was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it returned last year. It helps support a number of local hospitals including WVU Medicine Barnesville Hospital, WVU Medicine Harrison Community Hospital, WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital and WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital, according to past reports.

“I’m hoping to get back to the full Blood Bash that we were all used to in this community that brings in so much blood for our hospitals, especially after two years of COVID,” Clark added.

In the past, the event brought out hundreds of donors. It previously was estimated that almost 39,000 lives have been saved through donations given over the years.

The drive is run by students and instills the importance of community service. Students work in shifts at various tasks needed throughout the day — some students register and welcome donors, while others walk them to each station.

The blood drive is typically held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Barnesville High School gymnasium.