Hundreds of donors crowded the Tremper High School gymnasium Thursday to donate blood at the 42nd annual blood drive.
Kendra Richter, adviser to Tremper’s student government, which hosted the event in conjunction with Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin, said the drive was “so successful.”
“It was a very great, long day,” she said.
The drive brought in an estimated 700 people, and from those who could donate 603 units of blood were collected.
“I would say we had close to 200 Tremper students attempt to donate, which is exciting,” Richter said. “Something that (students) were super excited about yesterday is this (was) the biggest one post-COVID. It feels like it’s back in action.”
Richter said students who helped run the drive talked about interacting with the public and with the professionals helping with drawing the blood.
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“I heard some kids at the end saying how it was fun to talk to phlebotomists, and also the people in the community that come to donate that have been donating for a long time,” she said.
Thursday’s Blood Drive was themed “The need is never ending” in honor of Pi Day, which is also based on the mathematical value of Pi, or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is considered a never ending decimal number.
In celebration of Pi Day, donors received a free mini pie from Elsie Mae’s Pies. They also received a T-shirt to commemorate the donation.
Richter, who once helped run the blood drive as a Tremper student, hopes to fill more of the afternoon time slots next year after noticing a lull from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
“I’m trying to figure out what we can do to fill that time period,” she said.
Blood donated from the drive on Thursday will be circulated through local hospitals in southeast Wisconsin and beyond, as Versiti is a primary supplier for medical facilities in the area.