As part of an ongoing effort to donate fresh supplies of blood for the Red Cross, the American Red Cross Club hosted its first blood donation drive in four years on March 12 in the library study rooms. Students and staff who signed up to donate blood received a T-shirt and a $15 Amazon gift card as a thank-you. ARCC collected 23 pints of blood from around 23 donors.
“As part of the Red Cross, having blood drives is really important because that’s one of the main goals,” co-president Shwetha Mukkamala said. “Hearing a Red Cross representative’s personal experience with surgeries and her story and how blood drives really supported her made me want to continue doing this at Lynbrook.”
The club was founded to raise awareness about the importance of blood donation and encourage the school community to support patients in need. They conducted donation drives previously, but the effort stopped for four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors. This year, the team offered gift cards for participants as an incentive.
“It was pretty cool how a lot of people were really enthusiastic about donating,” Mukkamala said. “Donating can be scary to do in the middle of school, too, but it was nice to see people willing to participate.”
The donation drive’s planning began in November 2025 and ramped up in January and February this year. The officer team contacted Assistant Principal Tara Grande to receive approval for the event, then booked the library room facility. A Red Cross representative came to Lynbrook to walk the officer team through the process, which included volunteer training for interested students to prepare for any adverse reactions.
“If there’s one thing that the American Red Cross is identified with besides disaster relief, it’s blood donations, and they did it,” adviser and Voyager teacher James Lohmeier said. “I’ve been looking forward to restoring the donation drive after COVID. Getting that done is awesome. I’m really, really happy with the students, the leadership team and the volunteers who made it happen.”
Lohmeier, who has been donating blood since he was 16, was greatly inspired by ARCC’s mission.
“When the American Red Cross Club came as an opportunity, I said, ‘Hey, you know what?’” Lohmeir said. “‘I’ve been donating for years. This is something I believe in. Their mission is critical, and I’d like to be a part of it.’”
Participants in the donation drive included both students and teachers. Many were first-time blood donors who found the library’s location accessible.
“I’ve always wanted to donate blood,” senior Maulik Agrawal said. “I think it’s a really good way to give back to hospitals and help other people. Across the world, there are so many places with shortages in blood packs to treat patients, so if donating blood can help someone, I would be more than happy to give it.”
The ARCC plans to continue hosting annual blood drives and fundraisers in the future, continuing the tradition of blood donation opportunities at Lynbrook.
“We’re definitely thinking about doing more donation drives because we can have a lot of time to plan it this time around,” Mukkamala said. “We wanted to get more people involved because this time we only contacted students and teachers, but we found out that many other people in the community were also interested.”
