By Daisy Morales, Social Media Editor
Needles, blood and people all around. One would usually find this setting in a hospital, but on March 2, the FFHS Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) club ran a successful blood drive right here in the First Flight gymnasium, resulting in the collection of 56 pints of blood.
“We had gotten around 80 sign-ups and out of 80 of them, we had 56 pints which is our school record currently,” junior JP Kovacs, a member of HOSA, said. “Our last blood drive in November we had 47 (pints).”
Bumping up the school record is no easy job, as it takes a big crew to unload and prepare everything for the American Red Cross (ARC).
Early in the morning before ARC arrives, HOSA students are tasked with setting up tarps, tables and chairs. Once ARC arrives, HOSA students are all hands-on, unloading medical equipment from the trucks and getting everyone in their assigned place.
“What we mainly do is help out the American Red Cross workers,” Kovacs said. “We register people, get them in through the system, help them get up, move around, get them to their cars, just make sure that everything’s okay.”
Junior and HOSA member Sophia Martin acknowledged that she thinks this past blood drive really brought the HOSA club together.
“I think our teamwork was really good; we recognized the position that we needed to fill,” Martin said.
In addition to helping the actual blood donation process, HOSA students make sure that blood donors are mentally and emotionally prepared. Kovacs says that he does this knowing that blood donors are the real-life savers.
“When they’re donating (we) sit there and talk to them, make sure their fears aren’t getting the best of them,” Kovacs said. “Make them relax, make them feel comfortable.”
In addition to hosting blood drives, HOSA students have the option of competing in medically-oriented competitions.
“I competed in CPR and first aid,” Kovacs said. “This is my second year competing in it.”
Kovacs explained that the competition consisted of state and regional levels. At the regional level, students take a test in order to determine their knowledge of their selected skill.
“We had 38 people in my event that went to states and from there you have a first-round test,” Kovacs said.
Kovacs further explained that out of those 38 people, the top 20 scorers advanced to round two in which another set of skills was presented. After that, the top 10 were picked.
Unfortunately, Kovacs and Martin (who competed alongside him), weren’t able to advance to the top ten.
“Top three goes to ILC, which is an international conference and that’s even bigger since it not only includes the other states that have HOSA, it includes different countries and nations across the globe,” Kovacs said.
Nevertheless, Kovacs thinks that competing may be helpful in the near future.
“You really get to learn how to do different things and some of the things I learned in my competition I could use here at school or when I’m volunteering or anything like that,” Kovacs said.
Martin shared that these competitions helped her learn more about different medical organizations.
“We had lectures we could go to and there’s this group of tables with all these different companies like ‘Be The Match’ bone marrow and ‘Red Cross’ and ‘Blood Connection,’” Martin said. “You just get to go and talk to them, and they had games and giveaways.”
It was here that the HOSA club started planning for the upcoming blood drive in May.
“‘Blood Connection’ is a wonderful organization that we are working with that is ready for 80 to 125 sign-ups or however many sign-ups we may have,” Kovacs said. “They are such an amazing company and organization.”
Currently, the HOSA club hosts club meetings every Monday after school.
Kovacs shared that they are currently planning a Trifecta event, composed of a blood drive, a bone marrow donation drive and a supply drive.
He expressed his excitement by saying that more details will be coming soon.
“We’re really hoping that we can get more community because that’s what we’re trying to do especially since with the blood connection the blood stays down here on the beach”
Kovacs hopes that this motivates a bigger part of the community to donate.
“It’s really cool knowing that whenever you’re giving (blood), since you’re giving here as an OBX local, you’re also giving back to the hospital,” Kovacs said.
Martin shares this sentiment as she is also optimistic about this blood drive.
“I think that there’s going to be a lot more community outreach especially now that we are able to do walk-ins, I think it’s gonna be pretty big,” Martin said.
Both Kovacs and Martin expressed how HOSA has helped them by acknowledging how the blood drive has expanded their interests in the medical field.
“It has made me recognize a lot more of the medical crisis going on right now,” Martin said. “I know that they advertise the amount of blood we don’t have but you never really realize it until you’re working with the Red Cross.”
Junior Daisy Morales can be reached at 23moralesda04@daretolearn.org.
