Around this time of year, Fayette County high schools host blood drives in partnership with LifeSouth, a non-profit community-based blood supplier. Starr’s Mill held its semi-annual blood drive on Feb. 16. Students in Health Occupations Students of America help coordinate and run the event.

“I like that the HOSA members have the opportunity to educate the teachers,staff, and students at Starr’s Mill about the importance of donating blood,” healthcare teacher Julie McKenna said.

HOSA is a club for students who have an interest in the healthcare field. Like last year, the club held the blood drive in the school’s gym lobby where students were excused from classes. This year, 77 pints of blood were donated and will be going to community hospitals in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. The blood is collected to save lives for blood diseases like leukemia and lymphoma, car accident victims, open heart surgery operations, or other types of accidents and procedures.

The Mill has a blood drive every semester, but this year the HOSA chapters at the high schools in Fayette County decided to come together to have a friendly competition. The schools have had some very successful years, but recently the numbers of donors started to drop. By turning the blood drive into a competition, the HOSA chapters believed they could help raise awareness for more blood donors.

“It was a very successful [blood] drive, we were able to get a lot more donations this time,” McKenna said.