October 23, RB will hold its annual fall blood drive. This event will be sponsored by Student Association (SA).

This tradition has lasted for over 20 years, and previously the school has done one, two, or even three drives  per year. But more recently, blood drives usually occur at the beginning of fall and end of winter.

The goal SA has set is 120 donations for the whole year.

Last year, they received over a 170 donations through both the fall and winter drives.

Sign ups for the drive occurred the week of October 14 and students were still able to sign up the following week.

Participants must be at least 16 years of age and must get a permission slip signed by their parents if they are under 18.

“We are proud [of the school’s participation in blood drives]; this is one of the community service projects that we can do during school that actually saves lives,” SA Sponsor Angela Ziola said.

Unfortunately, the goal for pints donated was not met.

“Our goal was 94 pints and Lifesource collected 84,” Ziola said.

She noted that there were enough students signed up to meet the goal, but problems with the donation process and only two computers there to sign donors in plagued the event.

“The afternoon [wait] time was up to an hour.  This should not happen,” Ziola said.

Still, the donations that were received could have saved around 252 people’s lives.

Ziola also would like donors to know that they can donate using the school’s code 313 anytime at a Lifesource center to help RB reach its goal.

The next drive will be February 26, 2014.