McKinley High School hosted a blood drive in November. The last blood drive to take place at MHS was in 2015. This year’s drive goal was to collect 80 pints, and they collected 87 pints. On the first day of the drive, only 32 pints were collected. Some students were turned away because they did not meet the requirements, but 55 pints were collected on the second day.

“I wasn’t expecting us to reach it… but we got a lot of people on the second day,” senior Jayden Eastwood said.

Eastwood was one of the JROTC members to help with the drive. She helped create the T-shirts for people who donated. Included with the shirt were items donated by the Army, Navy, and Air National Guard to help create a swag bag.

Major Cory Marlowe said he thought the shirts and swag bag would be a good incentive for students who donated, on top of the feeling of giving.

“Once they saw that we were filling a need, and they felt good about it, the kids wanted to do it,” Marlowe said.

Prior to the blood drive, the JROTC posted banners on campus, put announcements in the morning bulletin and had members sign people up as part of their service learning project. They included information about how important blood donation is. For example, one pint of blood can save three lives and Hawaii needs about 200 pints a day but only a small portion of Hawaii donates.

“We are solely responsible for taking care of our own citizens,” Marlowe said.

Marlowe said he was impressed at how involved everyone was.

On the second day of the drive, MHS Dance Club performed to encourage students to donate.

Those who donated were surprised at how painless it was.
“It wasn’t like what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to hurt more but it was actually pretty easy,” Eastwood said.

Marlowe said MHS really came together to make the drive a success and he hopes people will consider donating again for the January blood drive even though JROTC will not be hosting it.

“We need to help our community,” freshman DePaul Leuta said.