You’re in a big, smelly bus. The next thing you see is a sharp, pointy needle poking into your veins. Drawing blood from your own body, extracting the very fluid that keeps you alive. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? The repulsive thought of a long stick of metal breaching the surface of the skin. The question is: do students really need to be donating blood?

The American Red Cross Blood drive has been going on for a while now. According to the American Red Cross website, students started giving blood in 1898 to “provide medical support to American soldiers and their families during and after the Spanish-American war.” I’ve only been at Robinson for two years, and every time the blood drive comes around, I notice that only a few people actually participate in it. I mean, it would make sense that people would be scared of having a needle extracting blood from their arm. But, I also believe that people actually do care about other people’s health, and that’s why they donate blood, regardless of the big scary needle. But what about the reward?

Sure, you may feel good after saving someone’s life, but what else do you get out of it? Some chips? Maybe a cookie? A T-Shirt? I think if they properly compensated donators, more students would donate blood. It doesn’t have to be a cash reward, maybe a pizza party or a field day would be better.

I think it’d be better off if they did blood drives at workplaces and offices, not where students are. It makes more sense to do that, as I believe adults would feel more inclined to donate blood than students. Students couldn’t care less about the blood drive here, so why continue doing it?