There are usually two a year – blood drives – hosted at Escalon High School and the first of the 2016-17 school year came to the campus this past week.

On Thursday, Dec. 8 the Delta Blood Bank spent a good part of the day at the Yosemite Avenue campus, with students, teachers and the community encouraged to come and donate blood. The need for blood is critical in some blood types right now and officials said they always need to increase the blood supply ahead of major holidays and travel times of the year.

“There were 31 first time donors,” noted Suzanne Brown, Director of Donor Operations for Delta Blood Bank.

That represented a major portion of the total donors for this drive, which was hosted in cooperation with the school’s Interact Club.

Interact is the youth arm of Rotary and several Interact students assisted by running the registration table, helping at the canteen and assisting Delta personnel as needed.

“We collected 50 units of blood so most of them were first time donors,” Brown said of the Thursday drive.

Last year, she added, Escalon High School hosted drives in December and again in April.

Along with the registration process, donors go through a brief health screening and then give the actual donation. They are then required to spend at least 15 minutes in the canteen with refreshments before leaving the blood drive area. At EHS, the Performing Arts Center is utilized for the blood drives.

“They always get T-shirts,” Brown added of bringing the donor gifts to schools, with many students wearing the shirts following their donations.

Donors also received coupons from local businesses as a ‘thank you’ for their donation as well.