The biannual Heartland Blood drive will take place Tuesday, Sept., 11 in the small gym. If students are interested in donating blood, the last day to sign up is Monday, Sept. 10 in the cafetorium during lunch periods.

In order for students to be able to donate blood, they have to meet certain requirements. Students need to be at least 16 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, have no cold/flu symptoms and have a school or Illinois ID. Students will also receive a free Bears’ t-shirt and extra credit from their gym teachers.

DGS students can donate blood twice a year to the Heartland profit organization–once in fall and another once in the spring. The Heartland organization gives a part of the profits to the physical education department.

Physical Education teacher Vincent Garramone is the event organizer.  Garramone says taking one hour out of your day to donate blood helps people in our community and as a bonus, it helps buy equipment for our curriculum.

¨We work with Heartland blood centers, and they are a for profit blood donation organization. They do make a profit off of it, but they do give us a portion of it back per pint. We use it to buy supplies, we have bought mannequins with [the money] for CPR, videos and posters for the curriculum,¨ Garramone said.

Some students are split between the idea of donating blood. Junior Monserrat Perez believes that it’s for a great cause, but it’s a personal fear of hers.

¨Donating blood is scary. I can’t stand the thought of someone sticking a needle in me and taking my blood out; it creeps me out,¨ Perez said.

Senior Justin Principe finds it important to donate blood saying it could change someone’s life.

¨I’m donating blood because I know that doctors and people in pre-med use my blood for important reasons–for surgery or to conduct research in a lab, to test medicine on certain blood types. I think that one hour of giving blood is worth saving a whole lifetime,¨ Principe said.