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Bethel Park High School Recognized for Exemplary Blood Drive Program

4 min read
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When Bethel Park High School started hosting blood drives 13 years ago, then-principal Zeb Jansante wanted to involve students in a project that would help them understand the meaning of giving back. In the years since, BPHS blood drives have evolved into an exemplary school and communitywide effort – culminating in their selection as Best School Blood Program 2019-20, a national award given by ADRP, an International Division of America’s Blood Centers.

“Everybody was excited about the award,” said Jansante, now the school district’s Assistant Superintendent for Administration. “Our students really stepped up to take part in blood drives. They took the ‘one donation can save three lives’ to heart; it inspired them. Many of them became regular donors.”

Bethel Park hosts four to five drives a year, and has consistently been one of Vitalant’s (formerly Central Blood Bank) Top 20 blood drive sponsors. The school participates in Vitalant’s High School Scholarship Program. “The scholarships are a big motivator, but ultimately it’s about saving lives. We want to ingrain in our students a mindset of community service,” noted Jansante.

It truly takes a village to run the school blood drives. The school secretary handles pledge slips, the janitorial staff prepares and cleans up the drive area, social studies teachers allow presentations on blood donation, and many teachers donate at each drive. The Principal’s Action Committee for Students performs multiple tasks, like encouraging donors to sign up, advertising the drives, using social media to spread the word, and working at the drives: cooking hotdogs, monitoring donors, signing students in and out, and more. Recently, the DECA marketing club assisted with promotional efforts as well.

“We appreciate the community of Bethel Park, faculty and staff, and students for understanding the importance of the event and for participating,” said Jansante. “There’s never enough blood out there for the patients who need it. It’s a powerful piece that we’re happy to be a part of. Now, even more so, we need people to give blood.”

The uncertainty surrounding how schools will operate in the coming year due to the pandemic will significantly impact the blood supply, as high school and college drives supply about 40 percent of local blood donations. To keep up with patients’ needs at all the hospitals in the Pittsburgh region, Vitalant must collect 600 donations a day. The amount typically collected is much less, about half of the need, so blood must be imported from other areas of the country.

“Most people are shocked when they hear how many blood donations are needed each day for the Pittsburgh area alone,” said Charles Wilcox, Vitalant division president. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even more difficult to collect the needed blood donations with many work places, churches and schools that normally host blood drives closed. Hundreds of blood drives have been cancelled since March, resulting in a loss of thousands of blood donations.”

Blood donors and blood drive hosts truly are saving lives in the community. When you donate at any Vitalant blood drive or donation center such as our South Hills location at The Manor Building, 4701 Baptist Road (15227), you are saving the lives of family, neighbors, and friends.

With pandemic-related closures anticipated to continue through the fall, the community’s help is needed more than ever to make sure blood is available for patients in local hospitals. For more information about donating blood or hosting a blood drive, please call 877-25-VITAL or visit vitalant. org. If you are unable to give blood, please consider a financial donation to the Blood Science Foundation. More information is available at bloodsciencefoundation.org.

Sponsored content brought to you by Vitalant. 

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