Youth Leadership class sponsors blood drive

Published 10:36 pm Saturday, February 14, 2009

Danielle Square gave blood for the first time on Saturday, but was a little unsure after the experience had ended.

She knew she was sacrificing something small for a greater cause, but she wasn’t thinking about that while a charge nurse was prepping her arm for extraction.

“It was scary when I saw that needle sticking in,” Square said. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I actually made it worse.”

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But there’s no word on when, or if, she will do it again.

“When I can’t really remember what that felt like, I’m sure I’ll do it again,” she said.

Square and other members of the Selma-Dallas County Youth Leadership Class XII sponsored an American Red Cross blood drive at the Walker-Johnson branch of the YMCA as one of their projects this school year.

The students, who represent every high school in Dallas County, got into action when they learned how many lives could be saved when blood is readily available.

“We decided to do this because there’s such a shortage of blood because of car wrecks and things like that,” said Shelby Irwin, student coordinator for the drive. “One pint of blood can save three lives.”