On Friday, November 1, West Lauderdale’s HOSA collaborated with Vitalant to host a blood drive. The blood drive was located on the high school campus in the Vitalant blood mobile. Vitalant, which was founded in 1943, is one of America’s largest nonprofit blood and biotherapies healthcare organizations. Working across 30 states, its purpose is to help save many lives by collecting donations through willing participants.

According to the Vitalant website, students who were eligible to donate had to meet the following requirements of being at least 16 years old, weighing 110 pounds, and bringing a signed consent form and photo identification. It was also recommended for donors to eat 2 hours prior to their appointments and drink plenty of liquids.

All people who donated received free t-shirts along with the chance of winning $10,000. These donations will be used to help save those in crucial need, and students were encouraged to donate or continue donating in the future.