On Wednesday, September 25, four FBLA officers, Chase Christian, Paxten Breshears, Israel Husong, and Trevor Smith, attended the Community Blood Center’s Leadership Workshop in Springfield. The theme was to be a smart cookie and donate blood. They learned many new skills, such as successful ways to run a blood drive and how to increase the number of donors who give blood, as well as exploring their leadership style and what roles they would best fill. Israel shared some strategies to help improve our donor count at our next blood drive. “We can help promote it by mentioning it at basketball games, as well as introducing a competition, such as girls vs boys, chance to win $50, and fast food coupons for those who sign up.” They are also considering doing a competition with Climax Springs to see which community can bring in the most donations. And, to end the day, Paxten won a cookie blanket as a door prize and Chase got to take home a tray of delicious cookies!
After the training, they toured the facility and saw each step of the process in preparing blood for transfusions. They learned that the CBCO provides all of the blood for all 40 of the hospitals in their surrounding area. Israel shared some strategies to help improve our donor count at our next blood drive. Adviser, Kristy Eidson, said that it was surprising to see the cooler with blood ready to be transfused so full of many blood types, but almost completely empty of O- and B-. Giving blood can truly save someone's life! Be a smart cookie, donate blood.
Submitted by Maddie Moos, VP of Communications
