Elliptical platelets swirl, coloring your veins with bold hues. Each vessel carries with it oxygen, with it life, pursuing a cycle that ends only with you. Hemoglobin asserts itself as a Norse God, embodying iron, with the flexibility of a painter. Leukocytes ready themselves for defense, daring any ailment to test its form, lest it be neutralized.
Basically, blood is important.
Liberty HOSA hosted its latest blood drive on Feb. 24, and with it, a catalyst for miracles. With the help of the operating organization ImpactLife, many new donors were able to walk through the process in comfort, knowing that with it wrought life for a stranger.
“Blood cannot be manufactured,” ImpactLife Senior Accountant Elise Robinson said. “And it is so important. It goes towards helping people in accidents, people with leukemia, people with sickle cell anemia.”
In this way, donation is a most essentially form of service. We have the capacity to donate money to the same charity, to increase funds for some distant efforts. What is most immediately and directly visible is what is coursing through your own veins. A gift of life force, at a half hour expense.
Beyond the theory, however, this blood drive demonstrated the impact of initiative. “We collected 50 units of blood which can save up to 150 lives,” HOSA Advisor and PLTW teacher Mrs. Strathman said.
Below is a glimpse into the walk-through and process of being a donor, to detangle that hazy ambiguity that comes with vague fear.
