The North Platte High School’s blood drive is going to be on March 8 this year. It is being run by the National Honors Society and the Red Cross, combined.

The need for blood is rising dramatically in America, and blood drives such as these are becoming more and more important. One of the major reasons NPHS is opening a blood drive is to get young members of society interested in donating.

National Honor Society Officer Bennett Magnuson hopes to get students interested in giving blood now in the hopes they’ll continue later.

“It’s trying to get kids interested and giving blood a lot earlier in their life because usually if they say it now then they’ll do it a lot later in life, too.”

Kids donating blood is an important thing for the community, however most young members do not donate.

“Right now only people that are in their 40s, 50s, and up give blood to everybody,” Magnuson said.

Every two seconds, somebody in America needs blood, and the amount of the young population willing to do so is declining.

One of many groups of focus this year are cancer patients.

“They’re always needing blood transfusions and they’re always needing to be on blood.” Magnuson said.

A main issue for younger generations not giving blood is because they don’t realize the need for blood.

“A lot of people think of it just as doing something small but it can actually literally save lives.” Magnuson said. “I think that people should take this opportunity to give blood.”

In their efforts to help set up the blood drive, National Honor Society’s members are helping this issue in America.

The goal of this blood drive is not only to donate blood, but to interest young community members in giving blood in the future.