Mayfield High School’s Peace Core held a blood drive on Oct. 9, 2014. Through the 60 pints of blood collected, the blood drive saved the lives of 180 people.

Peace Core has been organizing blood drives for 13 years. The club took over the event from the Med Tech program in 2001.

Karyn Sulzer, co-adviser of Peace Core, believes the blood drives give the club a primary focus for volunteer work. “Peace Core needed a focus for the service organization,” she said.

According to the Peace Core club members, the blood drive takes a lot of organization in order for it to be a success. Andrea Kuchta, Vice President of Peace Core, helped with the event. “The blood drive takes a lot of planning and hard work from the advisers and members of the club,” Kuchta said.

There are many actions that Peace Core needs to take in order for the blood drive to work, beginning in the month of September. First, the officers and advisers think of a theme, which was a galaxy theme. Previous themes included Halloween, superhero, and under the sea.

Then, the members of Peace Core meet to discuss what kinds of decorations they will make and plan a time that they will make them.

Sulzer knows that the blood drives take a lot of work in order for them to take place. She said, “[The blood drive takes] lots of pre-planning, decorating, and communicating with the Red Cross.”

Not only does the event need planning, but it also takes lots of work on the days leading up to the blood drive. The volunteers stay after school until 6:00 pm on the day before the drive to help create themed decorations, and make sure the senior commons is ready for the Red Cross to use. In addition, volunteers also have a 6:00 am start time on the morning of the blood drive.

Sulzer described what is done on the day of the blood drive. “The group comes on the morning of the drive to set up and cook breakfast for the workers and donors. The custodial staff also helps out,” she said.

The members of Peace Core had breakfast ready for everyone involved with the blood drive which included bagels and muffins. Peace Core members also made peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches for afternoon donors.

The blood drive was classified as a success by many members of Peace Core, including member Adam Kuchta. “I think that the blood drive was a success because of how many people signed up to donate, and how smoothly the day went,” he said.

Junior Laura Rossi believes that donating blood gives donors a great feeling. “I felt happy after I donated because I learned that I was not deferred, and that by donating my blood, I saved three lives,” she said.

The blood drive collected 60 pints of blood, but unfortunately did not meet the goal of 66 pints of blood. Kayla Blake, a spirit coordinator for Peace Core, believes these goals can be hard to meet.  “[We] did have a lot of people who were deferred due to high blood pressure, high pulse, didn’t weigh enough, or weren’t  tall enough,” she said.

Although Peace Core did not have as many pints of blood as they had hoped, they had 180 people who donated blood. The next blood drive is tentatively scheduled for March 2015.