Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Charity Smith/Daily Globe Cary Karlik, of Hurley gets her blood pressure taken by Chloe Keddell of the American Red Cross, during the city of Ironwood's reoccurring regular blood drive on Wednesday. Karlik said she donates blood often because it is something she can do to help the community.
IRONWOOD - Four area schools will host blood drives over the coming weeks. The American Red Cross blood drives could provide scholarship opportunities.
"The Red Cross offers these schools a scholarship program that if they get their students engaged to volunteer, contact donors, try to recruit their fellow students," said Christine Luxton, account representative for the American Red Cross.
The program credits the students for the units they collect through the school year
The program runs from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. The schools are given credit for every pint of blood donated during their sponsored blood drives, said Luxton.
The schools can earn anywhere from $250-$3,000 in scholarships from the Red Cross. In order to achieve the $250 scholarship a school must collect at least 30 pints of blood. The scholarship dollar amount goes up, as the school brings in more pints - 71-100 pints brings $500; 101-150 pints, $750; 151-200 pints, $1,000; 201-300 pints, $2,500; and anything more than 301 pints will give the school a $3,000 award.
The schools are free to award funds as they choose, said Luxton. She said they can break it down into several smaller scholarships or not. She said the schools generally award the scholarship to students who have helped with the blood drives or a student who donates all the time. She said that once the school designates the awardees the Red Cross will pay the funds to the college or university the student chooses to attend.
The Bessemer Area School District is on track to earn at least a $250 scholarship having brought in 29 pints at its December blood drive, according to a school official.
The Ewen-Trout Creek School District has brought in 77 pints of blood and anticipates earning a $750 scholarship after its next blood drive, said E-TC's National Honor Society adviser Jean Trudgeon.
"We have had wonderful community support and we still have openings for this next drive," said Trudgeon, adding the NHS runs the blood drives at E-TC.
E-TC has brought in more pints this year than ever before, Trudgeon said.
The Ironwood Area Schools held a blood drive at the Memorial Building on Thursday. The city of Ironwood hosted its regular reoccurring Red Cross blood drive at the Memorial Building on Wednesday.
The next school-sponsored blood drive will take place at the Hurley K-12 School on March 30 from noon to 5 p.m. E-TC will host a blood drive on March 31 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Bessemer will have a blood drive at the VFW Post on April 14 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The schools are also planning to host blood drives again in May and June to help further increase their scholarship funds.
