This year, 63 students signed up to donate blood for National Honor Society’s fifth annual blood drive, and 38 units of blood were collected. The number of units did not match donors since some people did not meet the requirements for blood pressure or heart rate, according to sponsor Kristin Hilgenfeld,

Hilgenfeld said in order to be eligible to donate blood students needed to be 16 years old, at least five feet two inches, weigh at least 110 pounds and must be willing to donate.

Senior Alexis Cucchiara was among the students who were unable to donate because her heart rate was too high. According to Cucchiara, a person’s pulse must be under 110 beats per minute to donate blood. After three tests her pulse was not low enough to donate.

“I wanted to try and donate because I heard that one person’s donation could save up to three lives,” Cucchiara said. “I know that blood cannot be made in labs and the only way that people can receive blood transfusion is if people donate.”

The blood collected will be going to the Community Blood Center, which has multiple locations in the Kansas City area. According to Hilgenfeld, this year’s goal was to increase the number of students willing to donate blood.

“Every year we try to outdo the number of donors and hope that we get it,” Hilgenfeld said. “We were really happy that we had a lot of kids register this year and didn’t have to call on parent volunteers like we sometimes have to. Our goal was just to collect blood and save some lives.”