By Hannah Chadwick
Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood. Every day, patients in the U.S. need 29,000 liters of blood. On top of this, the U.S. is facing the worst national blood shortage in more than a decade. Luckily, TPA junior Naomi Palmer is aware of this problem and has already made her best effort to create a difference.
Naomi planned the blood drive as her National Honor Society candidate service project, but has grown to love leading them and hopes to keep planning more in the future. She says, “I’ve always been interested in running a blood drive, and thanks to NHS I’ve been able to run two already and am learning more through each drive.” For her first drive, Naomi found that her main job was to get donors, which she found difficult, but accomplished it through personal connections. Due to the success of her first drive, Naomi discovered that when she began planning the second one, the previous success led to many excited donors, which made the process easier. Now she hopes the enthusiasm is still present as she begins planning her third drive.
Naomi has been working with Vitalant, an independent, non-profit organization focused on providing blood to patients and hospitals in need. In just two blood drives, there have been a total of 40 successful donations (accounting for up to 20 liters of blood). “With the Covid pandemic hitting hard, the blood shortage is bigger than ever and to be able to do something about that is a really great feeling,” Naomi says. “I’m so glad that all of the donors were as excited about the drives as I was, and I’m amazed with the amount of blood we raised!”
After the successful blood drives, Naomi is excited to run at least one more before the school year ends. “Vitalant is eager to get as much blood as possible, and has even reached out to me about hosting another drive, which I hope we can make happen around April,” she says. With one more drive, TPA will have donated around 30 liters of blood, making a difference at the community and national level. So if eligible, be sure to watch out for the next upcoming drive and help Naomi out by becoming one of her next donors.