The PHS Blood Drive volunteers. Photo by Johana Lastor.

By Aleyshka Barbosa

Saving a life and making a positive impact has never been easier than with donation of blood at our school’s annual blood drive. Passaic High School hosted the Central New Jersey Blood Center Blood Drive once again this year with the help of over 200 donations by the students at PHS. The Future Meds of America and their hard-working advisor Mr. Nyabeta organized the event.

The members of the Future Meds of America arrived to our school gym before 7 a.m. in order to help set up. Tasks including everything from getting the registration papers ready, to setting up the stations, to the simplest job of setting up chairs in the waiting area. All volunteers put total dedication into this event, knowing the outcome was worth it.

Sophomores Rosa Valentin and Brandon Cisneros recently stated, “The blood drive is something we enjoy doing, it shows us the importance of donating blood.” The blood drive outcome was more than a success.

“Passaic High School is absolutely our most successful high school ever in the history of the blood center, but our most successful blood drive of all blood drives!” said Karen Leadbeater,  account manager of the Central Jersey Blood Center.

Mr. Nyabeta could not have put the outcome of the blood drive into better words when he stated, “We had some setbacks, but like a phoenix we rise better and fast… maybe not that fast but fast enough.”

The blood drive was held to not only to help save lives, but also to spread the word for everyone to donate blood, not just students. New Jersey is one of the states that donates the least amount of blood yearly. Club advisor Mr. Nyabeta made sure to get the message across that, “The students get to know the benefits of blood donation; they get to participate in doing something good for themselves and for the community.”