The Red Cross Club hosted its first annual blood drive since the Covid-19 pandemic, offering students an opportunity to contribute to their community.
The event took place on Tuesday, January 10 at the Tartan courts in the Worthington Johnson Athletic Center (WJAC) which was transformed into a blood donation center. Students, faculty, and Wallingford residents lined up to participate.
Since the event has not taken place in recent years, organizing the drive presented several challenges. Director of Community Service Ms. Melissa Koomson shared, “The first step was to make sure we could even host it, given illness.” Ms. Koomson was also worried about the timing of the event — scheduled for the week following winter break — and corralling enough interest.
Since donating blood didn’t grant students community service hours, Josi Tucker ’23, who donated blood, suspected it discouraged students from attending the event. “Although there was pretty good Choate turnout, it’s sad to see that most students only do community events like this if there is something tangible they can gain from it like service hours,” she said. “I think a part of the reason why people don’t is because our school is very sheltered from the real world, so we forget how much people truly struggle, and are thus, less inclined to help anyone but ourselves.” However, in the end, the drive was packed with eager Choate and local Wallingford community members. “I’ve been very pleasantly surprised,” Ms. Koomson said.
Alex Shenouda ’23, President of the Red Cross Club, agreed that the event went very well. After a lot of planning and coordination with representatives of the Red Cross, Shenouda said that although obtaining sign-ups was a challenge, the turnout was great. He spoke about the importance of this event, explaining that the ability “to aid our community when we are able is extremely valuable. I honestly believe if you put good into the world, it’ll hit you back twice as much, so thanks to all our donors and volunteers.”
Blake Steremberg ’26, who volunteered at the event, said, “I’m not old enough to give blood, but I want to help people who need blood, and I thought volunteering would be one way to help.”
For many students, the blood drive was not only a chance to earn community service hours for volunteering, but also a very meaningful experience. “Making it easier and making it a more pleasurable experience to donate helps because every donation saves three lives,” Steremberg added.
Since Covid-19, hands-on volunteer opportunities have been sparse, but Steremberg was able to form connections with people and help ensure that things ran smoothly.
Tucker concurred on the importance of blood donations. “I think donating blood is extremely important because there is a severe blood shortage, and given all of the organ transplantations and catastrophes leaving people in need of blood transfusions, it is necessary that people can do whatever is needed to help others,” she said. “There are really no downsides in helping others in such a significant way, except a few possible hours of dizziness. If you’re willing to receive, you should be willing to give.”
Ms. Koomson also touched on the slight detachment between the town of Wallingford and Choate, noting that she believed this event helped bring the two closer together. “There has been a strange relationship with how the School is perceived from town folks, so I think any opportunity where we can host an event like this or bring community members into the school, they get to interact with the students who are volunteering, I think that’s always a positive to bridge the gap within the community,” she said.
Steremberg agreed, noting her conversations with members of the greater Wallingford community who participated at the event. She said, “I was answering a lot of questions about Choate, a lot of people outside asked, ‘What’s Choate like?’”
This event was a success thanks to these community members from Choate and Wallingford, coming together in this opportunity to help others. Steremberg concluded, “At the end of the day, we are just helping save lives.”
