Only a few students were plagued with a deathly fear of needles but the highlight of Madeline Carlson’s day was holding a warm bag of her own blood in her hands. She said it didn’t hurt but “You know something is being sucked out of you.” And it is- three lives worth of blood.  With a goal of eighty three units and an hour before the harvesting came to a close, the tally stood at sixty.

Many students had good intentions for the Cannon Falls School Blood Drive but after being checked out in the history pod with a finger prick, a low hemoglobin level prevented them from donating any blood. Hannah Brummund ate a spinach salad, broccoli and chicken for dinner the night before but at 12.4 she fell under the 12.5 level of iron necessary to give. Unfortunately for her, they weren’t handing out an “I tried!” sticker. American Red Cross blood drive collection Supervisor Bob Donndelinger, has been at the school’s annual event for about five years now and was site manager for the day. He says that low stats are normal, in fact it’s the number one barrier that makes students deferred by the computer on top of height and weight restrictions and a nervous pulse rate.

Students noticed a chill among the nine chair stations when they walked in the auditorium. Sami Cromer even bundled up with a blanket. Donndelinger says that “you give better when it’s cooler” and he was working to fill the labs in St. Paul that day before the bags were shipped out across Minnesota and the country. Cushy gym mats were laid out on the floor of the auditorium for any nauseous students to lie down on. Besides Mark Denn fumbling at the edge of the stage for stairs, guidance counselor and National Honors Society director, Kirsten Hoffman, was happy to say that the school didn’t have a single fainter this year. Just in case, they brought a bell to ring should they need to call for assistance.

Deb Klegin escorted over seventy five kids back to class but these weren’t just any pale faced, woozy hooligans- some had red rectangles on their shirts: volunteer stickers for helpful NHS members, while others donned circles: green for first time donors and red for veterans. Everyone received a sassy sloganed square that read “Be nice to me. I just gave blood!” After being drained for six minutes Matt Moskal’s arm was bandaged up with gauze and he was told by a nurse to “Milk that red one for all it’s worth.” She said that the cotton pad secured to his arm could even get him out of shoveling the day’s snowfall and doing dishes that night. Other perks included Ashly Serre’s favorite snack “Cinnamon Elf Ears” but a passing nurse informed me that the fudge cookies were the first to go at any Red Cross event. Emma Thomley, however, prefers Nutter Butters. Music was also being played unless one planned ahead and brought their iPod like Robert Hartman who was donating “double reds” that day. Double reds means double the blood, double the time and double the lives, but it could also mean double the orange juice if he wanted it.

The announcements the next morning thanked everyone for their support because after that last hour topped the total out at over seventy seven units- or 255 lives saved. Students were asked for one word that described why they chose to give blood yesterday- Denn said “birthday,” Nate Wildenberg said “pressure,” Madison Sesker said “hope,” Abe Anderson said “food,” Bob Britnall said “responsibility,” and everyone was there for “life.”