Last Friday there seemed to be a general mood around the students at Arrowhead. It was not the usual excitement that school is about to be out for the weekend, but instead the majority was overwhelmed with anxiety.

Why anxiety? The answer to that question is because on Friday December 12th the annual blood drive was held. When it comes to blood giving here at Arrowhead, there seems to be a rising pattern. This pattern is the amount of blood being collected each year. In 2001, 252 pints of blood were collected for a state record only to be broken the following year in 2002 with 255 pints of blood. Once again, students created a new state record this year with an impressive total of 266 pints of blood collected.

“Many kids came in just to fill the positions of their sick friends,” said one of the head honchos Mr. O’Driscoll. “It’s great because it brings together every different clique here.”

To put 266 pints of blood in perspective, in an average community blood drive, a miniscule 2% of eligible blood givers actually donate. If this still isn’t coming together, on Friday 32% of all eligible students gave blood, which is a huge amount in comparison to the 2% in the community drives.

As the day went on, the gym became more jam packed with students all in hopes of donating blood, saving a life, and eating cookies of course. For some though, those hopes were shattered when told they were unable to give blood do to a sickness, low iron count, tattoos, or other various reasons.

“Today I was psyched to give blood but when I went in I got rejected because I had a cold,” stated the disappointed Jodi Chojnacki.

Since this is the season that germs spread rapidly, this kind of thing happened to dozens of students. Many didn’t even make it past the beginning needle prick. But that still didn’t stop healthy students from breaking all the state records.

“Today I was really nervous, but then it wasn’t that bad,” explained first time donator Drew Urban. “It only took 4 minutes!”

“My arm feels num, I don’t remember where I was born, and I forgot my middle name,” said jokester Josh Fulks as he lay in the chair after his generous donation.

Fulks was one of the first donators of the day and showed everyone that it wasn’t bad at all to give blood. That was the general attitude of most students after donating.

“As scared as I was in the beginning, it’s totally worth it in the end and it only hurts for a second,” said another first timer Shannon Westmacott.