Janae Perry and Arianna Jahnke: Collecting Needed Donations From Your Veins

Senior Aaliyah Hogan in the chair donating blood (Ainsley Jakaboski)

Often times there are national shortages of resources: water, land, food, materials. But senior Arianna Jahnke (12) sheds light on a lesser-known resource: “There’s a national shortage in all hospitals worldwide for blood.”

Janae Perry (12) and Arianna Jahnke are both volunteers for the Roseville Blood Drive. Perry said a blood drive is “where an organization comes and sets up with a group of volunteers who donate their blood to help people in hospitals, people who need transfusions, or if there’s an accident and someone needs access to blood.”

“A lot of people at first didn’t really see the importance of [the blood drive]” said Perry.

A table of supplies for blood donation day at RAHS (Ainsley Jakaboski)

Jahnke continued explaining the importance of blood drives, “By doing donations at high schools… [people can] help with that national [blood] shortage.”

Perry volunteered to help with the blood drive because “it’s something that’s impactful for the community, not just our school.”

Jahnke explained she too volunteered for similar reasons, “I struggle with school related things to feel like I’m really making an impact…I wanted to be a part of something to feel like I was making an impact outside of just my community.”

As blood drives become annual events at our school, students continue to step up and donate. Perry said, “From our first blood drive to the second one we had a lot of people come back as second time donors.”

It even helps encourage people to continue donating even after the school blood drive. Perry continued, “I’ve gotten feedback from people saying that they’re going to start donating outside of [the school blood drive].”

Participating in blood drives can help save lives in need and develop character. “There’s so many things outside of Roseville… it’s important to think outside of yourself… [the blood drive] has had that impact on a lot of kids here who have donated or considered donating.” Jahnke explained.

“The impact is not just impacting one person in school, it’s impacted people outside of school and people they know” Perry pointed out, “it’s very important to keep getting the message out, and keep consistently doing [blood drives] so we have people that are constantly donating.”

“It’s very important to keep continuing [blood drives]… and having people who are willing to keep setting it up… you have to convince people this is worth doing… and getting more people involved in things they might’ve not had the chance to get involved in… there’s more students than not that want to make an impact.” said Jahnke.

If you or someone you know is interested in helping the community and saving lives, there are many ways to donate blood, and many blood drives that are ongoing. Addresses for memorial blood centers are as follows:

SAINT PAUL DONOR CENTER

737 Pelham Blvd

St. Paul, MN 55114

888.448.3253

RICHFIELD DONOR CENTER

6601 Lyndale Ave South #340

Richfield, MN 55423

888.448.3253

PLYMOUTH DONOR CENTER

3021 Harbor Lane N.

Plymouth, MN 55447

888.448.3253