GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Kenowa Hills High School's National Honor Society students hosted Michigan’s largest high school blood drive again this year.
The annual KHHS NHS blood drive began Wednesday morning and runs two consecutive days through Thursday, 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. at KHHS. Due to a large turn-out last year, this year’s drive was extended to two days. Organizer Vicki Harris said 450 people are expected to donate.
This year the blood drive is dedicated to a community member, and mother of a KHHS student, who recently lost her battle with breast cancer.
Harris has coordinated the KHHS NHS blood drive for the past 20 years. She said they are very proud of their students, who are also raising money and awareness for breast cancer.
“This is a service organization so we want to donate some of our proceeds from the blood drive to the Susan Komen Foundation, dedicated to Shanon Wieber, who just recently passed away from breast cancer,” said Harris. “We’ve asked everyone in the building to wear pink for the next two days, and we just want to honor her, and her daughter Lauren, who’s a senior here at Kenowa Hills High School.”
Each of the high school’s 80 NHS student members must recruit at least five donors. At this blood drive every year, many people are first-time as well as repeat donors.
Each pint of blood donated will help three people, according to Harris.
