The holiday season is a time of giving, and perhaps one of the most important things anyone can give at this time of year is a blood donation.  With people busy shopping, traveling, and getting ready for all the holiday festivities, blood donations tend to decline while the need increases.  So Walt Whitman High School’s annual Fall Blood Drive comes at a good time for students to step up and make a difference. It’s the first of two blood drives the senior class holds every school year. 

120 students signed up to donate blood at this year’s autumn event that is sponsored by the Senior Class, and on November 14th the school’s South Gym was buzzing with activity as students signed in, sat down with New York Blood Center nurses and staff to give blood, then picked up a bagel and juice while they sat in the recovery area before heading back to class. 

This event has been going on for nearly two decades at Walt Whitman High School and is organized by the Senior Class and lots of student volunteers, but it was the first blood drive for new Senior Class Advisor Keith Goldman.  “I have amazing class officers and a group of incredible blood drive captains and they are basically doing everything. I am the adult in the room, but they are doing everything. True leaders, it's great,” said Goldman. 

Walt Whitman High School junior Ryan Pastore volunteered to be one of two dozen blood drive captains. They’re responsible for recruiting fellow students to donate blood and making sure things run smoothly on the day of the drive. Serving his community is already a big part of Pastore’s life. This was his third time donating blood, and he’s a junior firefighter with the Huntington Manor Fire Department. Post-graduation he’d like to attend the Coast Guard Academy, and maybe join the FDNY after his military service. Because of his work as a first responder, he knows that giving blood can save lives. “I see some of the bad stuff that can happen to people and I want to know that I can make a difference and maybe convince other people to make a difference. Even though [life saving measures] don’t always work, anything I can do to make people, on their worst days, feel a little bit better is what pushes me every day,” said Pastore. 

Principal Dr. John Murphy is proud that his students see the bigger picture and look for ways to help their community.  “Our kids know that their impact, their imprint and their footprint on this world, is more than just what they do on social media. That it's what they decide to do in the here and now and in person. They understand that leadership and engagement is more than just words.  It's through actions and deeds. And they look beyond themselves and what their own personal needs are, to the needs of others,” said Murphy.

The senior class will hold another blood drive in the spring. In the past five years, post-pandemic, Whitman students have donated more than 1,100 pints of blood.  Thanks to all our blood drive captains, and the students and staff who donated!

New York Blood Center says close to 2,000 donations are needed each day for patients in the New York/New Jersey area.  One pint of blood can save three lives.  Donated blood can be separated into its various components - red cells, platelets, or plasma.  Transfusions are needed by cancer patients, accident, burn, or trauma victims, newborn babies, transplant recipients, surgery patients, and many more.  The blood type most often requested by hospitals is type O.  For more information on donating blood, view the New York Blood Center's website.