This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Kinnelon High School Hosts Blood Drive

The Blood Center of New Jersey visited Kinnelon High School Thursday.

hosted a blood drive on Thursday in the gymnasium. The Blood Center of New Jersey held the event, with high school students donating their blood and their time helping the Blood Center of New Jersey collectors with paperwork and other tasks. 

Blood Center of New Jersey representative Genevieve Toscano explained the importance of donating blood.

“Because it saves lives,” she said. “In New Jersey only 2 and a half percent of the population donates blood, which is lower than the 5 percent national average. We (New Jersey) don’t even donate enough blood to supply ourselves.”

Find out what's happening in Tri-Borowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Toscano said the weather does have an effect on blood donations.

“In the past month, blood donations have been really low because of the weather,” she said. “We had to cancel blood drives, or when we did have one, not a lot of people came.”

Find out what's happening in Tri-Borowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Toscano said there are many misconceptions about donating blood, such as you cannot donate blood if you have tattoos or have traveled out of the country, which she said is not true. 

The Blood Center of New Jersey performs between three and five blood drives a day. The goal at the Kinnelon High School blood drive was to get blood from 85 people, Toscano said. The goal was surpassed with a preliminary count being over 90 people, she said.

Click here to find a Blood Center of New Jersey location near you.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?