South Huntington Students Help Save Lives With 120-Pint Blood Drive

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — With the holiday season bringing packed schedules, travel, and year-end distractions, blood donations typically drop just as hospitals face increased demand, according to New York Blood Center officials. Walt Whitman High School students stepped up to help fill the gap this year, with 120 students signing up to donate blood during the school’s annual Fall Blood Drive on Nov. 14.

The event — now running for nearly two decades — is the first of two student-led blood drives held each school year by the Senior Class. Throughout the morning, the South Gym was filled with students checking in, meeting with New York Blood Center nurses, completing their donations, and recharging with bagels and juice in the recovery area before returning to class.

This fall marked the first blood drive for new Senior Class Advisor Keith Goldman, who said the student leadership team was responsible for making the event run smoothly.

“I have amazing class officers and a group of incredible blood drive captains and they are basically doing everything," said Goldman. I am the adult in the room, but they are doing everything. True leaders, it's great."

Among those captains was junior Ryan Pastore, one of about two dozen student volunteers who recruit donors and help manage the day. Pastore, a junior firefighter with the Huntington Manor Fire Department, donated blood for the third time and said his first-responder training has shaped his commitment to serving others.

“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,” Pastore said. “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.”

According to the New York Blood Center, close to 2,000 donations are needed each day for patients across the New York/New Jersey region. A single pint of blood can save up to three lives, and may be separated into components including red cells, plasma, and platelets. Donations help cancer patients, trauma victims, newborns, transplant recipients, surgical patients, and others. The most requested blood type from hospitals is type O.

The Senior Class will host another blood drive in the spring. Over the past five years — in the post-pandemic period — Whitman students have donated more than 1,100 pints of blood. Principal Dr. John Murphy said Whitman students understand the importance of taking action rather than limiting their influence to online spaces.

“Our kids know that their impact, their imprint, and their footprint on this world is more than just what they do on social media," Murphy said. "That'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. They look beyond themselves and what their own personal needs are, to the needs of others.”