The National Honor Society Blood drive is a semi-annual event that the American Red Cross greatly values. Neshaminy High School’s blood drive, held Dec. 16 in Gym 3, brings a significant amount of blood to Southeastern Pennsylvania and helps to save many lives every year.

The National Honor Society has been holding their blood drive for at least the past eight years. All of the donations are sent to a Red Cross component laboratory.

According to the Red Cross’s website, “[The blood] is processed into several components; red blood cells, plasma, platelets and/or cryoprecipitate.”

“A single blood donation may help save up to three lives,” said Kimberly Kelley, National Honor Society adviser and English teacher at NHS.

Donating blood may seem scary and difficult for people with fears of needles and bodily fluids, but the efforts of donors do not go unrecognized.

“Blood donations are used for many patients and reasons including cancer patients, surgery, accident victims, premature babies and blood transfusions. These are just a few examples,” Kelley said.

The requirements for who can give blood are fairly simple and most, if not all, people meet them. “You must be in good general health and feeling well, at least 16 years old with parental consent, weigh at least 110 pounds, and have not donated blood in the last 56 days,” Kelley said.