This article won honorable mention in the 2022 Michigan Interscholastic Press Association spring awards ceremony.
Whether people need easy volunteer hours or want to donate to simply help others in need, the blood drives are back in action at Northview after a near two year hiatus, with the first taking place November 1 in the auxiliary gym during the school day.
With a goal of 72 pints of blood donated and 132 appointment slots to fill, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), National Honor Society (NHS), and Versiti Blood Center have a lot on their hands regarding setting up the blood drive and advertising the event. However, all groups agree that donating blood is ingrained in the Northview culture and have no doubt that the community will step up. Northview is, according to Versiti, the second largest collector of blood in the state of Michigan.
“I think students are very open to the idea of donating blood. I think there’s a mindset that it’s not a big deal. It really isn’t,” SADD advisor Brian Bollone said. “I think that’s a good thing of what’s going on here and how I think Mr. Burba would have wanted it.”
Ted Burba, who passed away last year, was a huge advocate of the blood drives, and his absence has been felt by the whole community. For every pint of blood collected, money is earned. A portion of the proceeds from the drive go toward the Ted Burba Memorial Scholarship Fund, which a student wins every year.
“He had such a love for people and the event itself,” teacher and avid donator Karen Michewicz said. “[The day of the drive] was a day where he was just floating around, he’d be in the gym, then he’d be upstairs, he’d be checking on kids to see how they felt.” She added, “He just added such an energy to the event, I’ll miss that.”
Advisor for the NHS, Christine Atchinson, agreed.
“He was so passionate about this, and I just hope that NHS members and the whole student body and community can understand and feel his passion and want to give blood in his memory,” Atchinson said.
The drive is named in his honor, entitled the Ted Burba Memorial Blood Drive
One memory regarding Burba’s passion and attitude resonates with Michewicz. Her son graduated Northview a few years ago, and he donated blood for the first time during one of the high school’s blood drives with his mom right next to him.
“[Burba would] cover my door with the posters,” Michewicz said. “One year, my son was here, [Burba] made a poster [with] my son and I on it, which I was like ‘Really Ted, you don’t have to do that, I don’t need to see my picture’, and he was like ‘I’m doing it!’”
Michewicz donates as often as she can and has a selfless mindset about it all.
“I don’t have tons of money to build a wing of a hospital, but I can give blood, and it doesn’t cost me anything,” Michewicz said. “It’s the one thing I can do to help somebody else out. We have pacemakers, we have artificial appendages, etcetera, but there’s no substitute for blood.”
Like Michewicz said, there are no substitutes for blood, and anyone from trauma victims to cancer patients are in dire need of the substance. According to Kyle Graham, Northview’s account representative from Versiti Blood Center, the blood supply has been significantly impacted by the shut down of high school blood drives due to the pandemic; 30% of all blood donated comes from high schools.
“Not [just] Michigan, but the United States has never seen this low of an inventory for blood. There was a time in August when there was only one pint of blood on the shelf,” Graham said.
Atchinson noted that life can be unpredictable.
“You never think something’s going to happen to you until something does happen to a family member or a friend or something, then all the sudden this blood is needed,” Atcinson said.
Michewicz has first hand experience with the unexpected. While in high school, one of her peers was hit by a car while walking home from babysitting at night and nearly died.
“She was thrown up off the road and into a ditch,” Michewicz said. “It was wintertime, and literally the snow is what saved her life. [Her parents] woke up in the morning and thought she got home from babysitting, and that she was asleep in bed. Well, they went to her room, and she wasn’t there. They called the family, and they said no, she walked home last night, and they back tracked and found her in the ditch.”
Her school organized a blood drive in the student’s name, and that was the first time Michewicz ever donated. It started a tradition for her.
“I’ve continued to give [blood] all along, and I’d like to think that students here will do the same thing.”
Despite understanding the importance of donating blood, there are still some fears and nerves regarding donating blood among the student body.
One of the biggest setbacks to donating is the fear of needles and potential pain of it.
“The needle is going to be in your arm for five to seven minutes,” Graham said. “It’s actually the shortest part of the whole process. The questions take longer, the set up takes longer.”
Bollone recognized that the pinch of the needle is hardly noticeable.
“If you get the good person, you don’t even notice [the pinch]. I just hope students approach it with an open mind and give it a try, see what happens,” Bollone said.
That being said, many people get turned away from donating blood due to low iron or other health-related reasons. It is important to eat well and drink plenty of water in the few days leading up to the blood drive.
“The more water you drink, the faster your blood flows. If you’re scared of that needle, pound tons of water,” Graham said.
Additionally, Graham recommended to bring a distraction, like a phone, to the appointment to take your mind off of the needle. He also said that it might help to make the appointment at the same time as a friend or someone that donates regularly.
Bollone recommended that, even if donating doesn’t go well the first time, persistence is key.
“If the first time doesn’t seem to go as smooth as you thought, I’d say try again,” Bollone said. “Like anything in life, sometimes your nerves or anxiety can affect the first time you donate, but you’ll find from then on out, it’s a lot easier.”
The process of donating is relatively simple. Make an appointment, which, as previously mentioned, is during the school day, check in and answer a few questions at the start of the appointment, donate, then hang around for around fifteen minutes to make sure there are no side effects. During that brief period, donors will be given soda and cookies.
Michewicz joked that the cookies were her biggest incentive to donate.
According to Graham, pre-COVID-19 Northview donated some 300 pints of blood in a school year. Students 16 (with a waiver that can be found in the front office, Bollone’s room, or any government teachers’ room) and older (no waiver needed) can gain from participating in the drive. And, of course, there’s the legacy of Ted Burba to honor and keep alive.
“It will be a day to fondly remember [Burba],” Michewicz said. “I think he will be super pleased when we’re back to having blood draws.” She added, “And I think he expects us to maintain that. He’s not going to be happy if another school replaces us [as one of the top collectors].”
