On Nov. 5, Pinole Valley High School joined with the Red Cross to host a blood drive. It was a success. Multiple people came and donated blood.

One of the first-timers was a Pinole Valley student, Victoria Rynning. She told me she was finally of age to donate, and this was a perfect opportunity to help others.

“I think a lot of people are in need and a lot of people don’t take this seriously,” she said. “I have had family members who have health problems who need help like this and I can finally do something to help.” 

Another first-timer was Sophia Cabrera, also a Pinole Valley student. She was nervous at first but afterward was glad she donated because it was important.

“A lot of my family members are sick and they need blood transfusions sometimes,” she said. “I am able to help them and help this community.” 

Michael Saavedra of Pinole Valley High, was a second-timer. Although nervous because of the risk of COVID-19, he still showed up and decided to donate.

“In my perspective, we need to provide blood, and helping others is important, plus I get to find out my blood type,” he said. 

Kathy, a community member who didn’t give her last name, decided to donate because there “might be a time when I need blood and it’s important we have people who donate. We can save lives.”

This was my first time helping out for the blood drive and I’m glad I did it. Although I wasn’t able to donate since I, unfortunately, didn’t meet the weight requirement for my height, I helped setting things up and getting people ready. I was able to talk to a few of the donors and they were all nice people. It brought me hope, with everything going on in the world, people came and did a good deed. I plan on helping again and hopefully, we can get more people to donate.

It was great to see people come together. They had different reasons for donating but they all had one thing in common: They knew they could save lives.