Blood drive held at Oakville High School as we continue to see critical blood shortage nationwide

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The Oakville High School was bleeding red on Thursday with an Opening Day blood drive.

For senior Emilie Brower, it was her first time donating in the hopes of helping others.

“I’ve heard it does really good things for the community, so I just wanted to help out,” Brower said. “I know a lot of people need blood transfusions. We learned about this in class. Certain blood types can only get transfusions from some people, so I just wanted to give to that.”

More than 60 students and staff signed up for the blood drive in a partnership between the Mehlville School District and ImpactLife.

“Blood is medicine and blood is life saving,” Alex Fees with ImpactLife said.

Fees said less than 10% of eligible donors actually donate blood.

“It’s a time thing. It’s a convenience thing. There are a lot of other things competing for peoples attention these days,” Fees said.

The American Red Cross declaring an emergency blood shortage as the nation’s blood supply fell to critically low levels with the number of people donating at its lowest in 20 years.

Fees is asking people to donate as often as they are able to and said ImpactLife is targeting the younger generations to help bridge the gap during the critical need for blood.

“Each of us, all of us, are in possession of a valuable commodity. Despite the fact it will cost you nothing, donating blood is so valuable for the people on the receiving end,” Fees said.

ImpactLife has 4 blood donation centers in the region, including St. Peters, Crestwood, Arnold and Fairview Heights.

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