Before the school year was over, students from Nazareth H.S., East Flatbush, took time out of their day to donate blood. One pint of donated blood can help save as many as three lives.

New York Blood Center alone requires over 2,000 volunteer blood donations each day to meet the transfusion needs of patients in close to 200 New York and New Jersey hospitals. According to the center’s website, one out of every 10 people entering a hospital needs blood, including cancer, burn, trauma, and surgery patients, mothers delivering babies, accident victims and many more.

Who is eligible to donate blood? Healthy indviduals age 17 (16 with parents’ written permission) to 75, who weigh a minimum of 110 pounds and is in good health, can safely donate blood. There are some conditions that may permanently or temporarily defer someone from donor eligibility, but far more people are eligible to donate than actually do donate.

To learn more about donating blood, go to nybloodcenter.org/donate-blood/ or to the Red Cross website redcrossblood.org.