Here at Oratory, there are drives for just about everything; turkeys, socks, even coats. But the one drive that stands out amongst the rest is the Blood Drive. Because of the overwhelming success every year, Oratory has won numerous awards and received many commendations regarding the blood drive and the amount of lives saved each year. For example, last year we were awarded with two trips to see different Yankees games, during one of which students were allowed to walk onto the field. Every year, this drive is put on by the student council and supervised by Mr. Martin, and every year, it is successful. While nobody is initially thrilled to have needles in them for minutes at a time, they know it is for a great cause. While this blood drive admittedly showed lessened results from previous trips, there is still optimism. There will be another drive this spring and there is a larger turnout expected. Some of the barriers for this fall’s drive was age and sports, but these issues will hopefully be improved by the spring.

While spring sports will not allow some to donate blood, it also may allow those who played fall sports to donate as well. Also, the spring sport athletes can better prepare to take time off from their respective sport and donate. The other issue is that Oratory is a younger school. There are far more underclassmen than upperclassmen, and this has proven to be a double-edged sword for events like blood drives. But, as more and more students will have birthdays by this upcoming spring, I think it’s more than fair to say that Oratory will break 100 donations.