Gallon by Grad: East students participate in the Gallon by Grad program through the Community Blood Center by donating blood

Senior Eve Benditt and juniors Gray Sullivan and Ingrid Blacketer are currently participating in the Community Blood Centers Gallon Grad program — which requires students to donate blood at least eight times before they graduate.

The program’s goal is to encourage students to donate blood and understand the importance of blood donation. It requires local students to complete two of the three following activities: donate blood at least three times, volunteer for a minimum of five hours or recruit a minimum of five new donors.

Benditt believes that Gallon Grad is an effective way to not only receive a graduation cord but also save lives.

“I’ve had family members that got blood donations to save their life,” Benditt said. “It’s cool to be able to do that for other people.”

When donating a gallon of blood, you can donate either double red, plasma or whole blood. Double red blood cell donation happens through a machine where a donor can safely donate two units of red blood cells during one donation. Benditt so far has donated double red twice and will be able to donate double red every 16 weeks.

“Donating double red takes a lot longer, like an hour and a half. And whole blood takes about 45 minutes,” Benditt said.

She’s donated plasma once, which is the separation of the liquid portion of a donor’s blood from the cells, and whole blood once, where the donor gives all the components of their blood.

Students can donate blood by attending a local blood drive or even donating to a high school drive. Benditt was one of the chairs for her SHARE blood drive project this year, where they hosted the drive through the Community Blood Center on Feb. 17.

Junior Gray Sullivan first heard about the Gallon Grad program through Benditt’s SHARE project. After learning about the program, Sullivan wanted to be able to do something that could give back to her community while also being beneficial for graduation. Benditt helped Sullivan sign up for the program which helps keep track of the blood drives Sullivan attends. 

“While [giving your blood] may hurt a little bit or be a bit tough, it’s a small price to pay for helping someone so much,” Sullivan said.

Blood donors are required to wait eight weeks in between each whole blood donation and two weeks between plasma donations because of the amount of time blood and plasma take to replenish in the body. Sullivan plans on donating whole blood every eight weeks this year to meet her goal of one gallon by senior year.

After donating blood once this year, junior Ingrid Blacketer and co-chair of the blood drive SHARE project will go to the Community Blood Center in April to donate plasma to work on her goal of one gallon donated.

“The goal is to get the cord by graduation, but it’s more [than that because] each time you donate you would save three lives,” Blacketer said. “If I donate blood eight times then that’s 24 lives, which is crazy.”

Students interested in donating blood or participating in the Gallon Grad program can contact Linda Moriarity at LMoriarity@cbckc.org.