The Panther Creek Blood Drive took place this past Saturday in the parking lot of Whole Foods. This year, Panther Creek teamed up with the other side of 55 and had a joint blood drive with Green Hope High School. PCNN sat down with the students who organized and ran this event, to ask them a few questions about their mission.

First, we asked approximately how many students were expected to take part in the drive. According to Teemor Dard, 154 people showed up for the blood drive last November, and the projection for this month’s participation was between 130-140 people. Senior Ryan Gross added that 10 volunteers would be there all day supporting the blood drive, as well as “a bunch of walk-ins, that weren’t even from Green Hope or Panther Creek.”

Next, PCNN inquired about who participated the most in the blood drive: students, teachers, or parents. All 3 students interviewed agreed that the overwhelming majority of engagement came from students. Gross commented that this is likely due to the fact that the event is “advertised pretty well.”

In addition, we asked why the decision was made for Panther Creek to combine with Green Hope this year. Dard states confidently that “Panther Creek has consistently performed quite well in the blood drive” and he hopes to spread this to other schools in Wake County. He says the decision was “pretty clear” for his team, as they are all well-aware of the great relationship and rivalry that PC has with Green Hope. Bailey Nalston says that ultimately the reasoning behind this was to help the community out and donate even more blood.

To follow up, we asked the team why students should sign up to give blood, other than the free food and other perks. Donating just one pint of blood can save up to three lives, and only takes 15 minutes. Dard strongly believes that “in order to solve the critical blood shortage that the nation faces, it is up to us to donate blood.” He explains that blood cannot be artificially manufactured, and has to be donated by humans.

This year’s blood drive was very successful with 140 participants and 111 pints of blood donated. Thank you to all who participated!